Liverpool boast one of the best goalkeepers in the world in Alisson Becker, never mind just the Premier League. But before the Brazilian’s Anfield arrival in 2018, the Reds had rarely been able to call upon such quality between the sticks.
Pepe Reina had rivalled the likes of Petr Cech and Edwin van der Sar as the English top-flight’s finest following his own arrival on Merseyside in the summer of 2005, winning the Golden Glove award three years in a row in 2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08. However, his form faltered along with Liverpool ’s during the final years of his eight-season stint as first-choice for the Reds.
From the club’s other long-term Premier League number ones, David James, Sander Westerveld, Jerzy Dudek and Simon Mignolet all enjoyed moments of quality but suffered from inconsistency, with such a trait ultimately costing them starting status at Anfield. As a result, the role of Liverpool goalkeeper has been something of a problem position for manager after manager during the majority of the Reds’ 30-year wait to be crowned champions of England.
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Yet one former Liverpool goalkeeper feels he could have saved the Reds a lot of trouble had they just kept faith with him in goal. Unfortunately for the shot-stopper in question, work permit issues, a managerial change and a club in transition ultimately ensured he was never able to showcase his true qualities at Anfield.
Brad Friedel is regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in Premier League history, having shone for Blackburn Rovers, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur during 11 years as a first-choice top-flight keeper. Missing just five matches between 2001 and 2012, he started a Premier League-record 310 consecutive appearances.
However, his first taste of English football actually came at Anfield after signing for Liverpool in 1997. Yet he would struggle for consistency and made just 31 appearances in three years with the Reds before being released on a free transfer.
And looking back, Friedel wishes his Liverpool career had turned out differently with the United States international at a loss as to why things didn’t work out for him. Yet the 50-year-old has no regrets about calling time on his stint at Anfield, even if he walked away to join Blackburn Rovers on the eve of the Reds’ treble-winning season.
“Looking back, it was the only time in my whole career that I had an inconsistent run of form,” the American told the Liverpool ECHO via bet365 . “I always felt that I should be the number one goalkeeper wherever I was. That was the mentality of who I was.
“But I didn’t have consistent games, especially in that very first season when I finally got my opportunity. I’d have a couple of good games then there would be a mistake, followed by possibly another one, then I’d have a couple more decent games. First impressions are so important at a football club.
“If you look through my career, that’s the only club that the first impression with everyone - the fans, the staff, the players - was more of an inconsistent one as opposed to, 'This is our guy'. It’s the only one. I’m not a nervous individual, I don’t know why that was.
“There was competition, of course, with David James. But there’s competition at every Premier League club that you go to, in every position. I don’t know, it’s just one of those things. It’s a shame because it was the club I supported growing up and things didn’t work out.
“You can never promise a player anything. Things were said, no doubt, but it was more to give me confidence. If I ever used the words, ‘Broken promises’, I’d have to retract that. As a player I took it as that’s my chance. 'You said this!'
“But we have to look back in the history books and look at performances, just sheer performances, and at the very beginning they were a bit inconsistent. It’s a shame because it’s an incredible club and I wish I had gone in and performed consistently from minute one, and that I could have stayed there for over 10 years, but it didn’t work out that way.”
He continued: “I feel sadness about leaving, but not regret. They had offered me the opportunity to stay at Liverpool. I had the choice to do it. But I could have been at this wonderful, incredible football club and never really played.
“I always wanted to sign my contracts to play football, not knowing that the likelihood is that I would be a sub. And they went through a lot of goalkeepers before they found Pepe Reina, who was a long-term number one.
“And now they have one of the world’s greatest in Alisson at the club. But they went through a fair few goalkeepers before they found the consistent one they wanted. I think I was there all along, but it was also down to my performances as well that just didn’t instil that confidence from the onset of Gerard Houllier coming in.
“I’m sure before Gerard came in as co-manager, he’d have had a lot of communication with Peter Robinson and with Rick Parry. I’m sure they would have gone through the squad and said, 'We have this goalkeeper, he’s been inconsistent so far.' And I’m sure from that point, when Gerard came in, the first time I made a mistake or the second time, it all was in his mind and it was tough to break out of.
“When they sold Jamo, I knew they would bring someone else in. I always tried to back myself against anybody to be the number one but I think trust has to go into it. With the way things had started in my Liverpool career, I just don’t think Gerard and Phil Thompson had full faith in me as the long-term, consistent Liverpool goalkeeper.
“And I don’t think there was a lot I could have done to be honest. I think I could have played 10 games on the bounce, had 10 clean sheets and then the next mistake I made, the staff had already made up their minds - 'See, I told you!' But in reality, goalkeepers make mistakes all the time.
“And when there’s a seed of doubt already there, it’s really tough to change their minds. When Gerard came to Aston Villa, it was easier for him to trust me because from 2000 to 2010, I had just put 10 solid years of consistent performances behind me. It was easier then for him to say, 'Okay, I trust him now.'
“So zero regrets for leaving, but sadness of course. Anyone who has the opportunity to play for Liverpool, and then has to leave to go play, I’m sure there aren’t many players who want to leave.”
What would have made Friedel’s Liverpool career an even more frustrating one for the goalkeeper is the fact he had waited so long to join the Reds in the first place. While his transfer was completed in the winter of 1997, first contact had actually been made five years earlier when Graeme Souness was still in charge. And he would repeatedly be denied a work permit before he was finally able to embark on his Premier League dream.
“It was a long process! The first time I knew of Liverpool’s interest, it was when Graeme Souness was at the club so it must have been 1992,” he said. “Tom Saunders had flown over to come meet me and watch me in training. Steve Heighway had some ties with the United States at the time. A couple of agents that I worked with early on had ties to Liverpool and they started watching me then.
“I think the first official offer came around that time, in 1993ish. But then Graeme had left shortly after that I believe, when they lost to Bristol City in the FA Cup. Roy Evans was on the staff so knew of the interest in me and when he took over the process started over a little bit. Then I started communicating a lot more with him and Doug Livermore.
“Prior to Liverpool, I had signed a contract with Nottingham Forest and had not been able to get a work permit. Then after Liverpool’s interest and Graeme not staying at Liverpool, I’d signed a contract with Newcastle when Kevin Keegan was at Newcastle but had been denied a work permit.
“I signed a contract with Sunderland and agreed personal terms as well, and had a permit denied. And then there was some interest with Southampton at one stage but never signed a contract.
“Then it was Liverpool again. We were denied the work permit but then we won it on appeal at the end of 1996 or the beginning of 1997. Back then relief was 100% the feeling. But now fast forward to me being 50, I look back on it as a blessing as well.
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“I was able to join Brondby and meet some wonderful people and see a different aspect of life in Denmark, and then also had a wonderful experience at Galatasaray. I also got to play for a small time in the inaugural season of MLS in my home state of Columbus. Looking back there are some positives to it, but at the time in my mind it was only negatives so I was definitely relieved when I got it.”
When Friedel had grown up in the United States supporting Liverpool, they were the all-conquering, domineering side of the seventies and eighties which ruled supreme over England and Europe. Yet the side he signed for in 1997 was a very different prospect.
Their title-drought might have only been seven-and-a-half years at this point, but the Reds were a side in transition, with question marks hanging over both a long-term goalkeeper and a long-term manager. Changes were afoot and the American would ultimately end up caught in the middle between two eras without really belonging to either.
“I think David James documented it, it was a really tough time for him when I came in,” Friedel said. “It was the first time in his career I believe that he had been really challenged with losing his starting spot. Jamo did not befriend me so to speak. There was no special relationship there.
“Having said that, we are friends today. There is zero animosity there between the two of us. There was none by me when I joined but I think it was easier for me because I was the one who was being brought in.
“I think he took it personally. In his mind he was the number one goalkeeper, and he was a great goalkeeper. The athleticism that he had, and his strength and stature. I think he found it really difficult to cope with the fact that someone else had come into the team that was brought in legitimately to replace him.
“When it was just Roy Evans as manager, Roy called the shots. After one game at home (a 1-1 draw with Everton in February 1998), he told me afterwards that I’d be playing the next match and that was Aston Villa away.
“Jamo might have made a mistake in the game, I’m not sure, it was a long time ago now. But he had told me, so I’m sure that when Roy was thinking of replacing me, I’m sure he had a chat with Jamo in the same manner.
“It was very different once it was co-managers. Roy signed me so my relationship was far easier to go and speak to him. My relationship with Gerard at the time was a little bit turbulent but we quickly put that behind us.
“We had a far different relationship when he came to Villa. I was much older, he was coming into a club with a very good relationship. I think someone wrote an article at the time saying that I wasn’t happy with Gerard’s appointment at Aston Villa and that he was looking to sell me. That was just mischief making from some members of the press.
“We didn’t have a bad relationship at all at Aston Villa and I was very sad to see him come down ill again. When I was retired, we did a few speaking engagements together. It was just that little time when I was young and wanted to play.
“It was a little bit turbulent at Liverpool but nothing disrespectful or bad. Gerard did some wonderful things for Liverpool and for every club and federation he worked for during his career. Sometimes it’s the path your career takes but I have an incredible amount of respect for what he did in the game overall.”
Friedel would actually start the unprecedented, but brief, Evans/Houllier reign as Liverpool’s first-choice goalkeeper, starting the first eight games of the season before losing his place after a 2-0 defeat to Manchester United. Even now, he considers such a decision to be particularly harsh. Yet Friedel also feels such an experience was the making of him.
“I still think it was harsh at the time!” he said. “I knew what I had inside myself to be a consistent goalkeeper but I think a lot of it comes down to first impressions and there wasn’t that confidence in me.
“I’ve been a head coach at various levels as well and I get it, you have to make decisions and you have to make decisions that will decide if you win or not. Now that I am older and a bit more wiser in the game, I’ve never met a coach, been part of a coaching staff or made a decision myself to ever go out and lose a game. Any decision that is ever made in football is because that head coach and the staff thinks it is best and this is the best way to win a game.
“It was a choice I wasn’t happy with at the time, of course, but it was a choice. Looking back on things, all these instances helped me a lot. I took the mistakes that I made at Liverpool, and when I went to Blackburn I made sure that if I ever made a mistake, I was going to work really hard, psychologically and physically, to make sure that they didn’t happen again and that’s where my career really took off consistently.”
Even though Friedel also actually finished the 1998/99 season as Houllier’s first-choice, he knew the writing was on the wall regarding his Reds future when the club brought in Sander Westerveld in the summer of 2000. And as work permit issues had for so long jeopardised his move to Anfield, they perhaps also played a part in his Liverpool career coming to an end.
“I desperately wanted to play and prove myself. When they did sell Jamo, they brought in Sander,” he recalled. “Once they spent the money, which was a decent-sized transfer fee on Sander at the time, I saw the writing on the wall.
“But the reason I wouldn’t be on the bench had nothing to do with me being second or third-choice. I was the second-choice. It had to do with work permit regulations. At the time you could have multiple non-EU players on your books but you could only have three in a matchday squad.
“We had Patrick Berger, Vladimir Smicer, myself and there was one more at the club. Maybe Rigobert Song? At the time I think he could have been a work permitted player. You could only play three and if they didn’t need to, they weren’t going to put a goalkeeper on the bench and leave Vladi, Patrick or Rigo out.
“So whenever I wasn’t on the squad list, as sub, that would be the reason why. And that was communicated to me, I knew that. I wasn’t crazily happy about it but I understood it.
“I didn’t want to leave Liverpool but I knew I had to, to go and play football elsewhere. As the time rolled on at Liverpool, Gerard and my relationship was fine. I knew where I stood at the club.
“I met with Gerard, Rick Parry and my agent at the time, Paul Stretford, on doing the move to Blackburn. We met at Gerard’s house. They said they didn’t want me to leave and I believed them. I’m sure they wanted as strong a goalkeeping department as they could at the club.
“But at the same time, they signed off on the transfer. Looking back on it, I’m grateful for that. It wasn’t a great deal of money, it was a free transfer and they’d take just over £300k’s worth of bonus payments if I played 300 games. It was not a big transfer. I was very thankful that they did it.”
Leaving Liverpool as a 29-year-old in November 2000, those of a Reds persuasion perhaps would never have predicted the post-Anfield career which Friedel would go on to enjoy. As he himself admits, his Anfield “career was not something you would call illustrious.” Yet 10 years later he nearly made the unlikeliest of returns.
Having held talks with Kenny Dalglish and Damien Comoli, he even had the contract in front of him, ready to sign, in the summer of 2010. But with other options also on the table, the same reasons that led to him seeking a Liverpool departure a decade earlier prompted him to turn down the opportunity to finish his career with the Reds.
“It was incredibly close. I’d spoken with Damien Comolli a number of times, and Kenny,” Friedel admitted. “I was really close to doing it but the big one was I always signed contracts to play.
“Tottenham was offering me the chance to play and be the number one for at least a year. I was going into Liverpool as the out and out number two because Reina was still at the club. There were talks of doing things in the Academy with Liverpool, because I was 40 at the time. But I had the same at Tottenham which had been discussed prior to going there.
“It was more money at Liverpool but that wasn’t the deciding factor on the decision. It was very close. I had the decision between West Brom, staying at Aston Villa, Tottenham and Liverpool. At 40 years of age. You couldn’t ask for a better scenario.
“At Villa everything had gone well, but there was so much change there and they had only offered a one-year contract. I thought there was too much change going on but I loved my time there.
“It just felt right to leave and I was extremely close to going back to Liverpool. It went down to virtually the last day when I had to decide. I had both contracts in front of me and I had to decide on one of them. I actually surprised myself a little bit at not going back to Liverpool. It was really close.”
