Liverpool

Steve McManaman denies Liverpool suffered from problems with mentality

By Barney Corkhill, Editor | 19 April 2020

Former Liverpool winger Steve McManaman denies that the club's lack of silverware during the 1990s was down to a problem with their mentality.

Former Liverpool winger Steve McManaman has denied that the club's lack of success during his playing days was down to a problem with their mentality.

The Merseyside outfit were the dominant force in English football throughout the 1970s and 1980s, but their most recent top-flight title came in 1990, since when they have been forced to settle for sporadic cup success.

McManaman himself won just one FA Cup and one League Cup during a nine-year stay at Anfield, but he believes that the failure to add to that haul was more down to inconsistency than a mental block.

"We just had a few more failings certainly than the side now but against the teams back then that just pipped us to the title. You know on our day we could beat the majority of them, we could outplay the majority of them over the season," McManaman told Metro.

"We may have played more attractive football or scored more goals than them but it's the couple of failings that we had. Maybe our rivals had a better squad or a couple of better players.

"I don't think it was a mentality thing or anything like that. It's just every single year there's one team that beats everyone else unfortunately and if you don't get to the top of the mountain then you can't say you achieved it.

"That was one thing we all look back on and think were we good enough, we were on our day but over a 38-game period we probably didn't just have enough."

McManaman made 364 appearances for Liverpool before joining Real Madrid, where he won two La Liga titles and the Champions League twice.