As Kop favourite Lucas Leiva departs Anfield after ten years for pastures new, Tom Beattie takes a look at the players that the Liverpool faithful took to their hearts the most over the Premier League era starting with Dirk Kuyt.
By no means necessarily an indictment of a player’s quality on the field, to be named a cult hero is, in many ways, a recognition of a player’s undying passion guile, personality as well as a player’s contribution on and off the pitch during their time at a club. In a city such as Liverpool, a place that is characterised by its unique sense of humour and openness, it is only to be expected that the Kop faithful would have struck up an unmistakable rapport with, at times, the most unlikely of individuals. Granted, there is no rulebook on what exactly equates to being a cult hero as opposed to an club icon such as Kenny Dalglish and Steven Gerrard and one must admit that as football customs go, this represents one of the more inexact sciences when it comes to understanding the psyche of those on the terraces.
Sometimes, a player who comes to represent the ethos of the city and the club, immerses themselves in the culture and heritage of what it means to be a Red and represent this great club can endear themselves to fans more than even a player that, in comparison, is of more greater aptitude on the pitch. For example, for all he achieved at the club and dismissing his misgivings in his later career, Michael Owen, whom it is easy to forget won a Ballon D’or during his time at the club, never quite received the same adulation that, for example, local-hero Robbie Fowler was afforded by the Anfield faithful.
One could dispute which player was better during their time in the red of Liverpool but there will be very little debate over which of the two is favoured by those on the Kop, as was the case even before Owen joined Manchester United in 2009. Sometimes, what endears a player to the fans, is an overall sense that the player in question is simply “one of their own”, something Liverpool fans never quite felt towards Owen, for example, as opposed to Fowler, who, by comparison, was born only a matter of miles from Anfield in Toxteth.
What makes a player a cult hero, is little to do with geography, however. If one considers the players that have gained the adulation of those on the Kop in the premier League era, the vast majority have been born on foreign shores. Pointedly, what is clear to me from this is that, a cult hero is a player who simply comes to represent the ethos of the city and club to the fans something that even the best of players, Owen, being the case in point, simply sometimes fail to come to represent.
Rather, the common theme with all Kop cult heroes seems to be that the players seems to be a player who perhaps wasn’t necessarily the most gifted player in the squad but a player whom seemed to understand just what it meant to play for Liverpool; a player who gave everything, regardless of their talent, to the cause during that time.
In the first instalment of this series we take a look at Dirk Kuyt.
Signed in August of 2006 by Rafael Benitez following a hugely successful series of campaigns for Feyenoord in the Eredivisie, the Dutchman arrived with a big reputation as a clinical marksman following his goal-scoring exploits in Holland in which he scored an incredible 71 goals for the one-time European champions in just three years. Statistically, despite his clear pedigree, Kuyt was never to hit such heights again in front of goal and, instead found his niche on the right side of an attacking three following the acquisition of Fernando Torres from Atletico Madrid the following season. After reaching the respectable total of 12 league goals in his inaugural campaign in England, Kuyt would have been forgiven for thinking his nose had been pushed out by the Spanish record signing’s arrival, who arrived to much fanfare as one would expect.
This said, the Dutchman, even during his first full season on Merseyside had began to cultivate a reputation for scoring big goals, in big games. A strike against Chelsea that season as the Reds ran out 2-1 winners at Anfield, particularly stands out as does his winning penalty in the semi-final of the Champions League against the West London outfit as Liverpool reached an incredible second final in three years. The Dutchman, followed this up scoring the Reds’ only goal in injury time as the 5 time European champions succumbed to defeat against AC Milan in Athens in which the Reds dominated but ultimately lost to two strikes from veteran Pipo Inzaghi.
It would be wide of the mark to put the Dutchman in the same category as many of his fellow countrymen in terms of his quality on the ball but his unmistakable knack for turning up in big games could, frankly put even the best of players to shame. If there was one player one could rely on when the cards were down in a massive game, Kuyt, in a team that included all time legends such as Gerrard, Torres, Mascherano and Alonso, was it.
It wasn’t just on the Anfield terraces that Kuyt was so revered, Frank Lampard in 2016 in an interview with Jamie Carragher acknowledged the Dutchman’s contribution to one of the greatest Liverpool sides in living memory saying “You’d look at Dirk Kuyt during the season and think, He’s not a great player” acknowledging Kuyt’s perhaps lack of technical quality in relation to his peers, but conceding “when he played us, he would press Ashley Cole down to the corner flag. You couldn’t get out.” Put simply, Kuyt’s tireless displays became an integral part to Liverpool’s success in this period, with the acknowledgement of rivals such as Lampard of his great character and guile standing as testament to this.
Kuyt’s knack for being in the right place a the right time is often not afforded the credit it is due. A hat-trick against Manchester United in 2010 springs to mind as does his conversion of penalties in the most pressured of circumstances against Everton in the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park in 2007 as Kuyt struck twice against Tim Howard from the spot in a tumultuous fixture to secure all three points for the Reds in the most dramatic circumstances right at the death. One also must not forget his match-winning strikes against Manchester City and Wigan Athletic in the 2008/09 season as well as his equalizers in the 2012 Carling Cup final and against Arsenal in the 98th minute in one of the most bizarre games in living memory in that same season.
His ice cool reliability and arduous, at times, selfless, style of play very soon endeared Kuyt to the Anfield faithful. Kuyt was, simply the man for the big occasion and, in a feat that was incredible considering the wealth of talent in the Liverpool team he played in that included Reina, Carragher, Gerrard, Mascherano, Alonso and Torres, Kuyt was arguably the one player that, on a big night under the lights, we could simply not do without. Not bad for man with no first touch.
All this before even mentioning his arduous grit, character and guile that made him, arguably the tour de force he became. It was commonly said during Kuyt’s time at Anfield that the Dutchman simply had no off switch and so it is no coincidence given his evergreen approach to the game that he got himself into so many goal-scoring positions in the dying moments of games when players of, perhaps, superior quality but of lesser character had already downed tools. Arguably, Kuyt made up for his lack of technical prowess in relation to his peers just through sheer hard work and determination, something that, alongside his goals, made him into a Kop favourite. For me, his relationship with the Kop faithful prospered because many of those on the terraces saw a bit of the famous Liverpool grit and workmanship in their Dutch forward.
It came as no surprise that Kuyt recognised this meeting of minds only last year following a tie for Feyenoord against Manchester United in which the Dutchman was called out mercilessly by the Old Trafford faithful as a “Scouse bastard” something that he acknowledged with great pride in response. Kuyt in no uncertain terms said that he took it as a compliment, stating he was proud to be seen as an “adopted Scouser”, in essence confirming everything the Liverpool support already thought about the Dutchman. Kuyt, clearly was as proud to pull on the Red shirt and play for the people of this city as his native counterparts Gerrard and Carragher during his time at Anfield and he will go down in Liverpool folklore as someone who gave absolutely everything for the cause during his time at the club.
Quite simply, in his 6 years in Liverpool, Dirk became one of our own. You Scouse bastard.
