Litmanen

[Kahnee]

Reminded by the Hype thread, what was it with him when he was here? Was he not liked? He never seemed to get mobbed when he scored.

And what was with him never rarely getting picked? Was he just lazy in training?

 

Always thought he should have played more, but figured something must have been up behind the scenes

[Stevie H]

never saw him smile once in his entire career. genius of a footballer but a miserable get.

[PhilM]

I seem to remember reading a story about Houllier being none to pleased about the advice that Litmanen was giving to the other players about tactics, positioning etc...

[realtarragona]

We signed him a few years too late. Not fit and was past his best when he got here.

[Walrus]

Seems to be having more fun in training these days at Malmö FF:

 

Still eternally injured mind.

Edited August 1, 2007 by Walrus

[Murphman]

He was fabulous on the ball, I can't ever remember him making a bad pass but he looked lightweight and off the pace at times. I liked Jari.

[Knox_Harrington]

He was fabulous on the ball, I can't ever remember him making a bad pass but he looked lightweight and off the pace at times. I liked Jari.

Totally agree. You looked at him and thought - now there's a footballer.

[Stevie H]

He was fabulous on the ball, I can't ever remember him making a bad pass but he looked lightweight and off the pace at times. I liked Jari.

probably in my top ten favourite ever players.

[RedHarvest]

Litmanen was a bigger disappointment than Morientes in terms of the excitement generated by his signing.

A real classy player, I thought he was going to make the difference for us. Shame.

[Coyler]

Headwrecking that he never became/was never given the chance to become a legend here. Never hated him, though.

[Will]

Didn't offer enough consistently to the team to be worth playing more often than he did, TBH

[cymrococh]

Houllier really annoyed me when he spoke about working out a way to play Berger, Litmanen, Heskey, Owen and someone else really good in the same team, and then he only did it against FC Haka.

[Guest PaulMcC]

Litmanen was amzing. Especially at Ajax.

[Stevie H]

Houllier really annoyed me when he spoke about working out a way to play Berger, Litmanen, Heskey, Owen and someone else really good in the same team, and then he only did it against FC Haka.

was probably smicer was it? vladi linked up really well with jari on the handful of occasions they got to play together.

[mick]

He was traumaitised by his appearance in Andy's Tactics Truck.

 

Never the same again the poor fella........

[Benitez]

Reminded by the Hype thread, what was it with him when he was here? Was he not liked? He never seemed to get mobbed when he scored.

And what was with him never rarely getting picked? Was he just lazy in training?

 

Always thought he should have played more, but figured something must have been up behind the scenes

 

 

I didn't like him, if that helps.

[John am Rhein]

Brilliant player the Litmanen (that's lit-MA-nen not LIT-ma-nen)

 

I thought the way he plyed for Ajax vs Panathinaikos in the European Cup semi final was one of the best individual performances I've ever seen and I wanted us to buy him for years before we actually did. Unfortunately he seemed to have been diminished by injury before we got him and I'm not sure we was really willing (or able?) to adapt to British football. He still did quite well for us, mind. The goal he scored in Leverkusen would have been remembered much longer but for the unfortunate detail of us conceding 4 and Owen missing about the same number.

[spencer]

I'll never forget the second goal against Roma when Litmanen earned the free kick by turning Tommasi inside out and the commentator says 'Don't try this at home folks'.

 

(In Finnish the accent is always on the first syllable, so LIT-man-en is correct)

[John am Rhein]

I'll never forget the second goal against Roma when Litmanen earned the free kick by turning Tommasi inside out and the commentator says 'Don't try this at home folks'.

 

(In Finnish the accent is always on the first syllable, so LIT-man-en is correct)

 

But not in Russian

[rikf]

Ill never forget a pass he made when I just thought what is he doing and Murphy I think it was suddenly found himself in acres of space, class class player, probably one of the most talented players ever to play up front for liverpool

[Koogan]

(In Finnish the accent is always on the first syllable, so LIT-man-en is correct)

 

Correct!

 

Truly a great player in his prime, but he should have quit 10 years ago.

[Clay Davis]

definitely one of my favourite players ever. an absolute natural.

underused here for whatever reason

[anny road]

after Villa away I thought we were going to smahs teams apart with him in the side

 

if he had Smicer had remained fit and active together they could have been so important to us

[Dmitch]

didnt Houllier refer to him as a cancer on the club?

[Bo Benn]

Like a few other 'creative' players Houllier brought in they never quite seemed fit the system somehow. GH was desperate to amp up the team's attacking play but never made it. Litmanen was one of these attempts to make us more threatening. Unfortunately there was no plan on how to make it work with him and he was constantly pushed out of his favorite position as attacking mid. GH made a lot of great defensive signings, not so many attacking ones.

 

Possible he was/is a bit of a lazy git as well, but I wouldn't know about that.

 

Also he was already aging a bit when we got him. 5 years sooner it would probably been a superb signing.