Whenever the question used to be asked in the glory days of the 1970s and 80s as to what was the secret of Liverpool’s enduring and seemingly never-ending success, the answer invariably was there was no secret.
Fitness, simplicity, consistency of approach and fundamentally having good players were often offered up as explanations for why trophies flooded in to Anfield more regularly than anywhere else, with the general perception being the Reds largely adopted the same conventions as their rivals but merely executed them better.
That is why there was a genuine sense of shock across football in the summer of 1985 when Liverpool appointed Kenny Dalglish as the club’s first ever player-manager in the wake of Joe Fagan’s retirement, as unusual a role in the modern game now as it was back then.
