Like all teams, Liverpool have had some pretty bad strikers over the years. From Sean Dundee to Titi Camara, some dubious players have pulled on the red.
Whether they just didn’t hit in to the team’s style of play or were poorly scouted, not all transfers work out and some players are just much worse than first expected.
Others had all the talent in the world, but terrible attitude and work ethics – while others were just horrible, selfish blokes who refused to graft for the team.
And with the retirement of Rickie Lambert, a striker who tried hard, fulfilled his boyhood dream, but who was a bit rubbish for the Reds, we decided to compile a list of the 25 worst strikers to play for Liverpool.
The players on here aren’t ranked in order from least worst, but still rubbish, to worst worst. They’re in a random order, so click through them all to see what surprises await.
We’ve tried to go back through the years and pluck out some long forgotten names – because the club’s history didn’t start with the introduction of the Premier League.
And first up is a man who hardly needs any introduction. So we won’t.
Mario Balotelli
Why always you Mario? Because you’ve got a terrible attitude, you’re not a team player and you’ve wasted your talent.
From the self-indulgent to the petulant, Balotelli‘s time at Liverpool was a terrible mistake and a surprising move by Brendan Rodgers.
Despite showing flashes of what he could be during his time with Manchester City, the Italian was an utter annoyance and to top it off he only scored one league goal in his only season at Anfield.
This list isn’t in order, but honestly if it was Balotelli would be miles down the bottom. Everyone is better off without him at the club.
Titi Camara
Signed for £2.6 million in 1999, Titi Camara wasn’t absolutely the worst striker that the Kop has ever seen, but he wasn’t great.
The Guinea international has an excellent strike rate for his national side with 23 goals from 38 games, but his time at Liverpool was less impressive.
Camara only stuck around for one season before falling out of favour with boss Gerard Houllier and subsequently moving to West Ham United.
A return of nine league goals in 33 appearances is okay, although he should forever be remembered fondly for playing and scoring just hours after finding out that his father had died.
Ronny Rosenthal
Israeli striker Ronny Rosenthal will forever be remembered for *that* miss against Aston Villa in September 1992, and just for that he deserves to be in this list.
Rosenthal arrived on loan and scored a hattrick on debut and four goals in the last six games of the 1989-1990 campaign, but struggled apart from that.
After such a good start to his Liverpool career, the former Standard Liege man struggled to get into the first team.
He stuck around the club until 1994, when Tottenham Hotspur came in for his services. Overall 21 goals in 74 appearances is okay, but not great.
Andy Carroll
The poor lad was whipped away from his beloved Toon so quickly that he had to google his new Liverpool teammates. He never settled, the price tag weighed him down and he was rubbish.
We’ll never know what career the Geordie wrecking ball might have had if he’d stayed up north, but his time at Liverpool did him no favours.
Andy Carroll was unsuited to their style of play and his lack of pace let him down. 44 league appearances followed in three years, but a return of just six goals isn’t good enough.
With two goals on his first start it could have been different, and further highlights included two winnings strikes against Everton. But this was a match that should never have been.
Alan Waddle
Alan Waddle is another Geordie who failed to settle at Liverpool and was eventually moved on after the club admitted their mistakes.
Waddle made just 16 league appearances in four years, with the final two seeing the Wallsend lad making zero. On top of that, he scored just once.
Just like Carroll, he managed to score the winner against Everton in December 1973, barely a month after being brought to the club for £40,000 from Halifax Town.
Alan was the cousin of former England international Chris Waddle and was sold to Leicester City in 1977.
Krisztián Németh
Hungarian forward Krisztián Németh was the next big thing that never really took off, despite everyone’s best intentions.
When Németh signed, big things were expected of the player and former manager Rafa Benitez even said he had a bright future – according to Liverpoolfc.com.
However, the forward was limited to reserve team fixtures as well as friendly run outs as his Anfield career never got going.
Loan moves to Blackpool and AEK Athens failed to convince the Melwood heirarchy of his potential and Németh eventually left for Olympiakos on a permanent deal.
El Hadji Diouf
Senegal striker El Hadji Diouf was supposed to be the man to fire Liverpool to a league title, but he left Anfield a divisive figure.
After starring for his nation during the 2002 World Cup, some Reds thought they had a gem on their hands when he joined the club that summer.
But Diouf only lasted two years on Merseyside and scored a poor three league goals in all that both – all of them coming in his debut campaign.
Ever divisive, the forward became an icon of hate towards the end of his career after a series of ugly incidents coloured his reputation.
Djibril Cissé
France forward Djibril Cissé was a man Houllier wanted, but Benitez ended up managing the striker in his first season in England.
A red hot goal scorer in his native land, Cissé struggled across in the Premier League and hit the back of the net just three times in 15 games before suffering a horrible tibia and fibula fracture.
Although Cissé made 33 league appearances during 2005-2006, he only scored nine times and was sold the following campaign.
Things could have been so much different had Houllier stayed on and had he not suffered that injury, but these are the fine lines footballers deal with.
Bobby Graham
After scoring a hat-trick on his league debut against Aston Villa in 1964 aged just 19-year-old, Bobby Graham struggled to find the back of the net on a regular basis.
By the end of the 1968 season, Graham has chalked up just two more goals as he struggled to make the first team.
His time at Anfield was over in 1972, just two years after playing 42 league games and scoring 13 goals.
Graham was never a regular, and every time someone better came in he was the man to drop out of the side.
Tony Hateley
Signed from Chelsea for £96,000 in 1967, which was a club record at the time, Hateley came to Anfield with a swagger developed after scoring 150 league goals before he was 26-years-old.
However, a lack of off the ball skill and a poor passing range meant Liverpool had to adapt their game to him.
Despite success in his first season, he scored 16 times in 38 appearances, Hateley was canned after four games during his second campaign on Merseyside.
In order to get the side back on track to being a passing team, it was decided to bin the towering forward.
Jack Whitham
Born in 1946, it took Jack Whitham three months to score his first goal for Liverpool, but first team opportunities were severely limited and the forward failed to add to that tally during the 1970/1971 season.
After impressing for Sheffield Wednesday, Whitham moved to Merseyside for £57,000 in 1970 but made just 15 league appearances in four years.
During that time he actually hit seven goals – not a bad return, but five of them came from two games as Whitham struggled for consistency.
Injuries and a lack of game time meant the lad’s contract was terminated by mutual consent after hardly playing for two years.
Colin Russell
Poor Colin Russell was so bad that he made one appearances as a substitute because the squad was heavily depleted by injuries.
Manager Bob Paisley sent Russell on for half an hour as he looked to protect many senior players from knocks before a European Cup final against Real Madrid.
The local lad rose through the ranks as an apprentice before making his debut, but was shifted on to Huddersfield Town the season after.
All in all, he made 209 league appearances in the English football league, scoring 49 times. Not an excellent return.
David Hodgson
Pacey striker David Hodgson arrived at Anfield from Middlesbrough for £450,000 in 1982. He was quick, but lacked composure and never really did anything great for the club.
Just four goals in three years was a poor return for the England U21 forward, who moved back to the north-east with Sunderland in 1984.
In his first season, Hodgson played 23 times in the league – but by then his goose was cooked and the Smoggie only played five times after the end of that campaign.
Competition for paces got in the lad’s way, although he did manage to snag a European Cup winner’s medal in 1984.
Michael Robinson
Signed while Hodgson was still at the club, Michael Robinson didn’t have a good time of it either and was shipped on after two years.
Not that fit, not that skillful, it’s remarkable that he was ever brought to Anfield. But after two years the Melwood hierarchy cut their losses and sent Robinson on his way.
Just 30 appearances and six goals in the league are all she wrote, as the striker was moved on to Queens Park Rangers and then Osasuna in Spain.
Despite his modest success, the £200,000 man still managed to snag 24 caps for the Republic of Ireland and scored four times.
Karl-Heinz Riedle
German international Karl-Heinz Riedle was supposed to be a goal machine, but 11 in three seasons tells its own story.
Riedle arrived in England from Borussia Dortmund for £1.7 million in 1997, but he struggled to hold down a starting place due to the emergence of Michael Owen and Robbie Fowler.
During the 1997-1998 campaign he managed to score six times in the league in 25 appearances, before playing 34 times during the following season.
Riedle’s return was even less impressive as the German found the back of the net just five times and he was moved on to Fulham.
Rickie Lambert
Poor old Rickie Lambert. It actually breaks my heart putting him on this list, but the truth was he was never that good in the red.
It was a romantic story. A real boy’s own tale. But in the cold morning light, Lambert never really justified his fee and will go down in history as nothing more than a heart-warming yarn.
After Liverpool let him go when he was just 15-years-old, they resigned him for £4.5 million from Southampton.
In his solitary season with his boyhood club, the striker made 25 league appearances and scored just twice – but only 12 of those came as starts.
Erik Meijer
This is the problem that has kept managers awake at night for decades: signing strikers from the Dutch league.
Ask Tottenham Hotspur about Vincent Janssen, Middlesbrough about Alfonso Alves and Liverpool about Erik Meijer.
Although Meijer was signed on a free, this still wasn’t the best business going. The once capped Dutch international played just 27 times across all competitions in his two years at Anfield.
His only two goals were both scored in the League Cup, during his first season at the club and he was swiftly released.
Anthony Le Tallac
French starlet Anthony Le Tallac arrived at Liverpool with big things expected of him. He’d just been voted the second best player of the U17 World Cup and the club beat off Manchester United to secure his signature.
However, a lack of first team chances saw his progress stagnate, something that infuriated France’s U21 manager Raymond Domenech – said the Mirror.
Just one goal in three years was interspaced with loan moves to St Etienne, Sunderland, Sochaux and Le Mans.
But the former wonderkid never hit the heights that were expected of him and Le Tallac only scored more than 10 goals in a season once, with Valenciennes in the French second tier.
David N’Gog
This is another Rafa Benitez signing from France that never delivered on his promise (if he ever had any to begin with).
David N’Gog arrived from Paris St. Germain and made a total of 94 appearances in all competitions before being moved on.
Most of them were as a substitute, but still 19 goals in all that time is less than impressive and N’Gog has hardly excelled at his other clubs.
The striker was never that good and spent three years at Bolton Wanderers before moving to Swansea City.
Andriy Voronin
Ukranian forward Andriy Voronin arrived on a free transfer and that was probably about the best thing to happen to him.
Voronin had a decent scoring record in the Bundesliga, scoring 63 goals between 2002 and 2007 for Mainz, Köln and Bayer Leverkusen.
The forward made 40 appearances for the Anfield side in three years, but was frequently absolutely rubbish and only scored six times in that time.
Despite all that, he still managed to make 70 appearances for the national side and his record show that he might have been better than his Liverpool time showed.
Iago Aspas
When asked to name the worst Liverpool striker they can think of, most fans plump straight for Spaniard Iago Aspas.
Somehow he convinced Brendan Rodgers he was good enough to start the first four out of five league games in 2013-2014, but once Rodgers realised his mistake he didn’t start again until the 1st January 2014.
Aspas played 15 times that campaign and only managed to hit the back of the net once and his most remembered moment was probably an awful corner against Chelsea.
The Spaniard went back to his native land and scored 40 times in the next three season, 26 of which came in 49 games for Celta Vigo during 2016-2017.
Frank McGarvey
Scotland international Frank McGarvey was so bad he never played a single game for Liverpool despite signing for £300,000 in 1979.
Despite that, Celtic somehow big a Scottish record £270,000 for McGarvey and he was sold just 10 months later.
McGarvey did eventually prove that he was a player of some caliber and he hit the back of the net 78 times in 168 appearances.
His record wasn’t too bad, but he clearly wasn’t good enough to be on Merseyside and the fact that he didn’t play in a single game in 10 months is testament to that.
Fabio Borini
Italian striker Fabio Borini was a player much admired by Brendan Rodgers, but he never managed to hit the heights that were expected of him.
Rodgers signed the forward after working with him at Swansea City, but injuries and better options quickly stagnated his Anfield career.
With only 25 league appearances and two goals across three seasons, it was clear that Borini was never going to be good enough to play regularly.
Memorably, he opted to stay at the club rather than accept a loan move to Sunderland – something that is sort of admirable but was probably the wrong decision.
Alan Irvine
Not to be confused with former West Bromwich Albion and Norwich City manager, this Alan Irvine was a more successful footballer but didn’t go into management.
Liverpool signed the striker, who had a poor record throughout his career, for £75,000 from Falkirk in October 1986.
There were loads of options ahead of him, and the Scot only managed to make four substitute appearances before moving to Dundee United.
He is also the victim of a cruel practical joke, which is best explained by the folks at Lfchistory.net, who tell the story like this: “When Liverpool’s FA Cup game against Luton was called off Irvine wasn’t told the news.
“He climbed on the team bus in his best suit ready for matchday, not noticing others were in tracksuits. ‘He thinks that the game is on,’ Hansen said to Dalglish. Kenny called for Irvine to come to his seat.
“‘We’ve got some injuries. How would you like playing centre-back?’ ‘I’m not sure, gaffer,’ Irvine replied. ‘Would you more comfortable in midfield?,’ Kenny asked, to which Irvine said ‘Yes.’ ‘Just don’t tell anybody you’re playing,’ were his final instructions.
“Poor Irvine hadn’t still made his debut. The players were let in on the joke and took their seat in the dressing room at Anfield as if the game was on. They were told by Kenny to sort their match tickets out, knowing that would leave Alan alone in the dressing room with him as he was the only one without a ticket.
“Alan was left waiting in the dressing room for some considerable time until Kenny finally said: ‘The game’s off,’ to which poor Alan could only mutter: ‘I know.'”
Poor bugger.
Sean Dundee
Ah the infamous Sean Dundee. The cult figure at Anfield. The anti-hero and one of the worst strikers of all time to play for Liverpool.
Dundee might have been a dud for Liverpool, but the South African actually had a decent record in the Bundesliga for Karlsruher SC and at one point had 36 goals in 61 appearances for them.
Regardless of that, Liverpool still paid £1.8 million for the lad in 1998 and he was so bad that there were rumours circulating of his departure only THREE MONTHS after Dundee arrived at Merseyside.
Next: All Rafa Benitez 45 signings for Liverpool ranked!
He never scored a goal for the club and is regarded by many as the worst forward to wear the Liver Bird on his chest.