NewsLiverpool's Greatest - No.47: Alex Raisbeck
Years: 1898-1909
Appearances: 341
Goals: 19
Trophies: First Division (1900-01, 1905-06), Second Division (1904-05)
Scottish centre-half Alex Raisbeck is widely regarded as Liverpool’s first iconic player.
He had already developed a stellar reputation north of the border and during a short loan with Stoke City before the Reds swooped in to bring him to Anfield for the handsome sum of £350 in April 1898.
It would prove to be money incredibly well spent. Raisbeck would go on to captain the club for nine seasons – a period that included Liverpool’s first two top-flight league titles, in 1900-01 and 1905-06.
In between those championship triumphs, Raisbeck remained loyal and led the recovery from relegation by winning the Second Division in 1904-05.
Quick, intelligent, strong, skilled and tireless, he made for a formidable presence and was routinely hailed as one of the greatest players of his generation.
A defender during his own era, Raisbeck’s position and style was more akin to a modern-day central midfielder, and contemporary reports of his performances and impact evoke a remarkable likeness to Steven Gerrard.
“We have never seen in England a speedier half-back, who could tackle a speedy forward, turn with him, and overtake and tackle him again,” the Liverpool Echo wrote of Raisbeck in 1924.
“There may be and may have been others so gifted. We have not seen them.
“His judgement was sound, his valour outstanding and, naturally for a half-back, his control and placing of the ball was equally confident.
“During his playing career at Anfield, he had to meet forwards whose names and records were outstanding in the history of the game, and yet of one of them could it be said that they were the superior or master of Raisbeck’s defensive play.”
That homage is all the more significant for coming 15 years after Raisbeck had left Anfield, with the 1908-09 campaign – one disrupted by injury – his last as a Liverpool player ahead of returning to Scotland.
His Reds story later continued in a scouting role, however, and he is enshrined in LFC history as the club’s earliest superstar.
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