In an exclusive interview with the ECHO, Steve McMahon shares his thoughts on Liverpool’s midfield overhaul, makes his record exit from Anfield and reveals how he got revenge on Vinnie Jones for a brutal FA Cup final.
Liverpool’s new-look £150m midfield is learning to do his job after wholesale changes to Jurgen Klopp’s engine room this summer.
After the contracts of James Milner, Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain expired, the Reds sold Jordan Henderson and Fabinho to the Saudi Arabian Pro League side and brought in Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Wataru Endo and Ryan Gravenberch.
They also looked at other players, seeing bids for Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia turned down, while retiring prospects like Jude Bellingham and Mason Mount.
Sitting fourth in the table at the start of the October international break was a positive start for Klopp’s Liverpool 2.0 as they bounced back from a disappointing season last year.
However, one Reds legend claims the jury is still out on Liverpool’s revamped midfield. Steve McMahon, a three-time league winner during his time at Anfield, knows a thing or two about midfield – and while he believes Klopp’s men have taken a step in the right direction, he warns that nothing is quite right. On the red side of Merseyside.
“Szoboszlai looks a fantastic signing and Mac Allister has been in form,” he told the ECHO exclusively at the Football Pools VIP event. – I mean six out of ten, but he can recover. He can get better.
“I think Endo’s signing was a bit of a straw man. They needed a holding midfielder and suddenly Endo came out of nowhere. Nobody saw this coming. That’s good, I don’t think we’ve seen enough of him yet. He played a small role.
“I don’t think anything is quite right, but it looks good. At least it looks a lot better than it is, that’s for sure.”
McMahon was involved in overhauling Liverpool’s midfield during his playing days. Signed by Aston Villa in September 1985, Kenny Dalglish was brought in primarily to replace Graeme Souness, who had left the club over 12 months earlier and was a key part of the new-look Reds squad.
However, after winning three league titles and two FA Cups, he was one of the casualties of the Souness era following the Scot’s return to Anfield and was appointed as Dalglish’s successor in April 1991. McMahon, then 30, left the club to join Mani. City next Christmas Eve.
Despite Liverpool losing to Arsenal in 1990/91, which would mark the start of a 30-year drought, McMahon is adamant that unlike Klopp’s side last year, the Reds team he was part of did not participate. in decline and puts its struggles entirely down to a change in leadership. “No (we weren’t past our best), not at all. It was still a fantastic side,” he insisted. – The change of manager changed the future activities of the club.
“It had nothing to do with the players. Nothing to do with the players. There was a manager who came in and changed the whole atmosphere of the club.
“Our relationship is great now. I was delighted when he (Souness) joined. He admits he’s made a lot of mistakes. I like him for that. “I’ve seen him many times since then, and he honestly says, ‘Yes, I made mistakes.’ .
While one of Souness’ mistakes dismantled Dalglish’s successful Liverpool team too early, McMahon set the record straight about his departure, insisting it was his decision to move on and was not forced.
“It was December 24 and I signed Peter Reid at Man City,” he recalled. “It was time for me to go. Contrary to what people said, Souness let me go, he didn’t. – I had four and a half years left on my contract, but I decided that everything did not go according to plan, things changed, the whole atmosphere of the club changed and for me it was the right time.
A solid midfielder of the McMahon breed died in the VAR era.
After briefly locking horns on the pitch with former Everton foe Peter Reid in the Merseyside derby away to Liverpool Cathedral to celebrate The Pools’ centenary, McMahon recalled some of his fiercest Premier League foes. era
Meanwhile, he also hinted at how he got revenge on Vinnie Jones for his infamous bone-crushing of the Wimbledon man, which somehow avoided a booking and is still circulating on social media to this day, just minutes into the 1988 FA Cup final.
“Peter Reid wasn’t the toughest, but he was tough,” McMahon said. – I don’t know any player in the current system who is like Souness, Reidy or Bryan Robson. “They gave and took and you stuck with it. We always hopped, shook hands and carried on. That was it.
“He (Vinnie Jones) was sent off immediately for that tackle! No risk, he would have been sent off. Especially today with VAR. “But that depends on how big a meal you made of it at the time. Today people move or whatever. I don’t have that.
“Just remembering. And then you’ll have plenty of time to figure it out later. Six months later, six weeks later, days or hours or 14 minutes later, I think it was!”
*Steve McMahon spoke exclusively to the ECHO at a VIP event to help launch Football Pools’ centenary – ‘100 years and going strong’
