By TTT Subscriber James Keen (jimtheoracle).

Let’s just look at the numbers for a second. 346 goals in 660 games forLiverpool in 15 seasons, which averages out at 23 goals a season. 25 of them were against Everton and 39 of them were in the FA Cup. He failed to get into double figures only three times, scored over 20 nine times and even got into the forties twice.

In his first spell at the club Ian Rush scored 207 goals in 331 games, and yet is almost forgotten now by the wider footballing community. Gary Lineker is a media figure now but Rush seems quite happy to have taken a step back. His modesty and low profile make it easy to forget what a terrific player he was. He is comfortably the club’s leading goal scorer in all competitions, although Roger Hunt is still the highest goal scorer purely in league football. But as a Liverpool-supporting child growing up in the 1980s there was a certainty about Rush’s goal scoring. I just expected it would happen all the time. It is to his eternal credit that invariably he never let anyone down; the metronomic ruthlessness that categorised his finishing seemingly never deserted him while he wore the red of Liverpool.

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