Where are they now? Liverpool’s worst ever ‘trenches’ XI from 2010
If you follow football on Twitter, chances are you’ll have come across the viral concept of the ‘trenches’ – i.e. a time in which a fanbase really went through it with a particularly rubbish squad or starting XI.
It’s all relative, but Roy Hodgson-era Liverpool have some claims in that regard – a stark contrast to the far superior sides built by Rafael Benitez and Jurgen Klopp before and after. In particular, there’s one XI from November 2010 that gained 9000 likes alongside the caption “When they start to question my loyalty”.
Surprisingly enough, Hodgson’s side actually won that game 3-1 – a Europa League group stage match at home to a Napoli side that featured the likes of Edinson Cavani, Marek Hamsik and Ezequiel Lavezzi. We’ve revisited that XI to see how things have panned out since for that lot.
GK: Pepe Reina
Kicking off this infamous XI with a ‘keeper who was world-class on his day.
His level had arguably dipped a bit below his very best by this point, but he’s since gone on to enjoy a distinguished career for another decade and a half at some of Europe’s top clubs.
The only one of this XI that’s still playing professionally at a proper level, Reina is 42(!) and currently minding the sticks for Cesc Fabregas’ newly-promoted Como.
RB: Glen Johnson
Johnson isn’t going to trouble any all-time great Liverpool or Premier League XIs, but he was a decent enough right-back. He spent his prime years at Anfield from 2009 to 2015, with exactly 200 appearances for the club.
He retired after being released by Stoke following their relegation in 2018. Since retiring he’s earned dough in property development, with a bit of football media work on the side.
CB: Sotiris Kyrgiakos
The ponytailed former Greek international only spent a couple of relatively gloomy seasons at Liverpool in an otherwise fairly well-travelled career that included stints with Panathinaikos, Rangers, Eintracht Frankfurt, Wolfsburg, Sunderland and – finally – Sydney Olympic.
Kyrgiakos retired in 2014 and has kept a low profile away from the game, but by the looks of his Instagram it looks as though he’s enjoying a pretty sweet life.
CB: Jamie Carragher
One of Liverpool’s all-time greatest homegrown players, Carragher – like Reina – sticks out like a sore thumb in this team.
After 17 years and 737 professional appearances for the Reds, he hung up his boots in 2013 and is now into his 11th season working as a pundit on Sky Sports.
Four names in and things aren’t that bad at all. How bad can this XI really be? Well…
LB: Paul Konchesky
Exhibit A.
Konchesky wasn’t a terrible footballer, by any means. By the time he arrived at Anfield, he’d already notched over 200 Premier League appearances for Charlton, West Ham and Fulham. He’d proven himself a solid if unspectacular left-back at that level and was a part of Hodgson’s Fulham side that unforgettably made it all the way to the Europa League final in 2010.
But he looked an awkward fit at Liverpool from day one and things never got any better from there as he almost became the poster boy for the misery of the short-lived Hodgson era. He was loaned to Nottingham Forest in the Championship following Hodgson’s dismissal and later returned to the Premier League with Leicester City.
The two-cap England international spent his latter years bouncing around the lower reaches of the English football pyramid before calling it quits at Billericay Town in 2020. He’s since gone into coaching and most recently served as the manager of West Ham Women.
READ: Paul Konchesky: I struggled in Liverpool; the fans are in control
DM: Jay Spearing
There was hope that Spearing could break through and establish himself in Liverpool’s first team, but a respectable enough career at Bolton Wanderers, Blackpool and Tranmere Rovers ultimately tells us that he was never quite at the level required.
Spearing returned to his boyhood club in 2022 and has since worked as a player-coach with the youth team.
DM: Christian Poulsen
Now we’re really talking trenches.
The Danish midfielder holds the distinction of being one of a select few players to have played in all of Europe’s five major leagues, but we can’t imagine his stints with Schalke, Sevilla, Juventus or Evian were as inauspicious as his Liverpool spell.
Poulsen called time on his playing career after returning to FC Copenhagen in 2015. He’s since gone into coaching and served as an assistant to Erik ten Hag at Ajax and Kasper Hjulmand at Denmark.
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FWR: Jonjo Shelvey
The midfielder was highly-rated when Liverpool picked him up as a youngster from Charlton back in 2010 but he never quite kicked on and reached the heights some expected across his three years on Merseyside.
Shelvey nevertheless went on to prove himself a serviceable player at Swansea and Newcastle United. But he struggled to remain in the first-team picture following the big-money takeover at St. James’ Park and has since flitted from Nottingham Forest to Turkish clubs Caykur Rizespor and Eyupspor.
AMC: Raul Meireles
Somehow named PFA Fans’ Player of the Year during the otherwise disastrous 2010-11 campaign, that was Meireles’ only season at Liverpool.
As enigmatic off the pitch as he was on it, the Portuguese midfielder subsequently spent a year at Chelsea – in which he won the Champions League – before retiring at age 33 following four years at Fenerbahce.
We’d try but words can’t do justice to his 2019 Lip Sync Portugal appearance. Something you just have to watch for yourself.
FWL: Milan Jovanovic
One of those blokes that just doesn’t look like a professional footballer. You can read that in more ways than one, depending on how uncharitable you want to be.
Steven Gerrard replaced Jovanovic on the 65-minute mark that night against Napoli and scored a hat-trick in the Reds’ 3-1 comeback win. That tells you a thing or two about that side in the absence of their inspirational captain, so often their difference-maker.
Jovanovic left Liverpool after one season to forget and saw out his career at Anderlecht. Google throws up nothing on what he’s up to these days.
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ST: David N’Gog
Ah, N’Gog. A trier, if nothing else.
The French striker spent three years at Bolton after Liverpool before embarking on a nomadic career that included brief stints with Swansea, Ross County and Budapest Honved. There was also the wonderful headline ‘Stade de Reims deny David N’Gog has gone missing’ back in 2014.
N’Gog retired last year following a second stint with lesser-known Greek outfit Panionios.