Liverpool FC top 10 penalty takers – From Milner to Molby – Liverpool FC

Who are the best penalty takers in the history of Liverpool FC? Here is our top 10.

When penalties are awarded, fans celebrate as if a goal had already been scored.

But if you don’t have a player you can trust from the spot, those celebrations can lose meaning.

Fortunately, Liverpool have had their fair share of excellent penalty takers. Here, we rank our top 10.

10. Mark Walters

Taken: 6 Scored: 6 Success Rate: 100%

A name you were hoping to see on this list? Maybe not, but the statistics don’t lie.

Walters, who played for the Reds from 1991-95, took six penalties for the club and scored all six.

Only one other player who has scored more than five penalties for the club has a 100% success rate. I can’t argue with that!

9. Tommy Smith

Taken: 32 Score: 22 Success Rate: 68.8%

As it is, Smith has scored the sixth-highest number of penalties of any player in Liverpool history – not bad for a cross!

The former Reds captain earned the nickname ‘Anfield Iron’ due to his uncompromising style as a defender for his hometown club.

But when it came to penalties, he was generally reliable and also scored a good number of free kicks.

8. Billy Liddell

Taken: 45 Score: 34 Success Rate: 75.6%

Only three players have scored more penalties for Liverpool than Liddell, who is one of only four players to surpass the 200-goal mark in club history.

In his early years at the club, he studied accounting alongside his football commitments, and his parents wanted to make sure he had something to fall back on if football didn’t work out.

They shouldn’t have worried about that, as Liddell went on to become one of the most prolific strikers and penalty takers in Reds history.

7. Danny Murphy

Taken: 8 Score: 8 Success Rate: 100%

Murphy is the only other player to have taken more than five Liverpool penalties with a 100% shooting rate.

All eight penalty shots he took for the Reds found the back of the net, and the midfielder also excelled from free kicks.

“Danny Murphy loved his penalties!”

– Owen Tan on Facebook

6. Mohammed Salah

Taken: 26 Score: 23 Success Rate: 88.5%

Salah is Liverpool’s current first-choice penalty taker.

He wasn’t the Reds’ go-to man from the spot in his first season, but such is his thirst for goals that he ensured he became just that.

His biggest penalty came against Tottenham in the 2019 Champions League final, and he made no mistakes.

5. James Milner

Taken: 21 Score: 19 Success Rate: 90.5%

Had it not been for Salah’s arrival, Milner would surely have more penalty goals under his belt.

As one of the most experienced players in the Liverpool squad, Milner has perfected his penalty-taking routine over many years.

His biggest penalties for the Reds include his 95th-minute winner against Leicester in the season in which he won the club title.

“He never goes for the bold, he always keeps it simple.”

– Ricky Umunna on Facebook

“If my life depended on it, James Milner is the only player I want to take that penalty.”

– @dimitrihondros2 on Twitter

4.Phil Neal

Taken: 51 Score: 38 Success Rate: 74.5%

The most decorated player in Liverpool history, despite being a right back, Neal was the penalty taker on whom much of the Reds’ success in the 1970s and 1980s was based.

He scored from a penalty in the 1977 European Cup final and in the penalty shootout against Roma in 1984.

The only thing that stopped him from ranking higher was the fact that he missed 13 of the 51 penalties he took for the club, which may come as a surprise to some of you.

“Great pen taker and side, so underrated.”

– Les Arnold on Facebook

“So reliable for so long on most occasions.”

– Rob Common on Facebook

3. Steven Gerard

Taken: 57 Score: 47 Success Rate: 82.5%

Gerrard is the player who has scored the most penalties in Liverpool history.

Throughout his years as club captain and talisman, Gerrard was the club’s first-choice penalty taker, taking some of his most famous penalty shots against the likes of Real Madrid in 2009, as well as several at Old Trafford.

“I always believed in him!”

– @Northyy16 on Twitter

2. John Aldridge

Taken: 18 Score: 17 Success Rate: 94.4%

Aldridge’s only failure was in the 1988 FA Cup Final against Wimbledon.

That season, he had made all 11 of his penalty kicks before the final, and Liverpool lost 1–0.

Tough luck, but Aldridge will remain one of the club’s most reliable penalty takers.

“His little stutter in his career fooled a lot of goalkeepers!”

– @mcm488 on Twitter

1. Jan Molby

Taken: 45 Score: 42 Success Rate: 93.3%

Molby’s reliability from 12 yards out played a huge part in the Reds’ achievements in the late 1980s.

When asked by LFCHistory about his three misses, Molby was quick to reply, “Three of the best saves you’ve ever seen!”

The best penalty taker in Liverpool history to date.

“Great like.”

– @robbohuyton on Twitter

“He almost never failed. Ultra-reliable.”

– @TheKopHQ on Twitter