For all the adulation given to the club’s great goalscorers and creators, Liverpudlians have always loved a top-class centre half.
From Bill Shankly’s ‘Colossus’ Ron Yeats, who provided the backbone to the legendary Scottish manager’s awakening of the sleeping giant which was Liverpool in the early 1960s, to the sublime elegance of Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson in the 80s, right through to modern-day defensive totem Virgil van Dijk, Anfield has been blessed with numerous talented stoppers who were able to provide the platform at the back for their attacking colleagues to flourish.
Identifying those with the ability and talent to fulfil such a role, however, is often something of a gamble however and over the years there have been those who arrived with great hopes of being the Reds' next bedrock at the back only to fall way below expectations.
