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Underrated players: Liverpool’s Robbie Fowler
Liverpool to win the FA Cup and the League Cup – 4/1 with William Hill
It’s obviously strange to describe someone that scored so many goals as ‘underrated’, but there’s now a whole generation of fans who don’t know quite how good Robbie Fowler was, or saw the diluted, injury-ravaged version of him at Manchester City.
Honestly, he’s still the most natural finisher I’ve seen in England. Alan Shearer may have scored more goals, but in terms of looking comfortable in front of goal there wasn’t anyone even approaching prime-era Fowler.
Left-foot, right-foot, head – absolutely lethal with all them. And with that added blend of mischief which made him likeable and three-dimensional than most of his contemporaries. So it’s not really that he’s underrated, but undervalued, because he’s not talked about nearly enough considering what he did in the Premier League in the 90s. And obviously also because I just wanted an excuse to post this.
So, partly because I’m bored of writing negative things about Liverpool, here’s a solid half-an-hour tutorial on how to put the ball in the net, direct from God. Nose plasters, bleached hair, line snorting and all…
Liverpool to win the FA Cup and the League Cup – 4/1 with William Hill
Premier League Moments: Liverpool’s Robbie Fowler ‘does’ the lines at Anfield
April 1999.
Regardless of the sinister aspect to it, this is still probably one of the most original goal celebrations the Premier League has seen. Yes, yes, it’s about drugs so it’s ‘bad’, and ‘irresponsible’ and whatever else, but it was also ‘funny’.
If you’ve read Robbie Fowler’s book – which is actually more entertaining than you’d think – you’ll know quite how much junkie-themed abuse Fowler took from the Everton fans over the years. What’s more, you’ll know quite how fiercely anti-drugs he is.
With the chants of ‘smackhead’ ringing in his ears, it followed naturally that on converting a penalty at Anfield in the Merseyside derby of the spring of 1999, that Fowler would get to his knees in front of the away fans and ‘snort’ the white goal-line. Obviously.
In amongst the goal-scoring exploits, Fowler’s career was spiced with incidents like this – and actually, rather than making him dislikeable, it made him more human and easy to relate to. One of the last ‘local boys made good’ that the game in this country saw – even if he did occasionally come with an ‘explicit content’ sticker across his nose.
“Robbie, the FA’s on the phone…”
EPL News 24/7
