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Alexis Mac Allister next: Ranking the 7 players to wear No.10 for Liverpool in the Premier League

Nestor Watach •

Alexis Mac Allister has officially been unveiled as a Liverpool player. He’ll become the eighth player to wear the famous No.10 shirt for the club in the Premier League – but who came before him?

“Since I won the World Cup, I said that I want to win more trophies and I think that this club will help me to do that – that’s the aim and when you are in a big club like this one you have to win trophies. So, that’s what I want,” the Argentinian said after his signing was announced.

We’ve taken a look at the last seven players to wear Liverpool’s No.10 shirt in the Premier League era and ranked them from worst to best.

7. Andriy Voronin

The ponytailed Ukrainian striker is emblematic of the erratic transfer strategy during Rafael Benitez’s latter days at Anfield.

Voronin scored five goals in 19 Premier League appearances during his debut campaign – a more respectable record than you might remember – but he was evidently not quite up to standard.

6. Joe Cole

As with Voronin above, Cole’s lack of success at Liverpool was symbolic of something bigger; the doomed Roy Hodgson project.

Having stagnated a little at Chelsea, Cole moved to Anfield in 2010 in search of rejuvenation. But he was sent off on his Premier League debut against Arsenal and things never really got better from there.

“At the risk of upsetting Liverpool fans any more than they’re upset with me already, I probably wouldn’t,” Cole said in 2009, having been asked if he would sign for the Reds again if he could go back in time.

“But not for any fault of the club or because I didn’t like the club or anything. I signed for the previous owners and then they sold the club four or five weeks later.

“And you know what football clubs are like, it’s hard enough when managers come and go, you can fall out of favour.

“But when the owners come and go… I knew it was only a matter of time before Roy [Hodgson] got the boot, and that’s when my injuries started in the sense that, from my knee injury, I kept picking up muscle injuries, I couldn’t explode as quick as I wanted.”

5. Luis Garcia

Forever a fan favourite for that ghost goal and his role in the triumph of Istanbul, Garcia was pretty damn good for Liverpool.

But more importantly, he just got it, forging a connection with the fans that remains strong to this day.

A proper Kop hero.

READ: A tribute to Luis Garcia at Liverpool – and a connection you can’t fake

4. Philippe Coutinho

No sale in football history has made a club more of a profit than Liverpool when they sold Coutinho to Barcelona in January 2018.

At £142million, Coutinho remains the Premier League’s record departure and all-time third most expensive transfer ever. The fact that he cost the Reds just £8.5million in January 2013 tells you everything about how his much his stock rose while representing the Reds.

The Brazilian playmaker was capable of something absolutely breathtaking moments. He was unplayable at times.

Yet the fact remains he never actually won anything at Anfield – only ever a runner-up in the Premier League, League Cup and Europa League.

His sale – with funds reinvested in game-changing signings like Alisson and Virgil van Dijk – can be considered the catalyst for Jurgen Klopp’s side taking a giant leap forward and winning both the Premier League and Champions League.

A brilliant player at Liverpool – but an even better bit of business.

3. John Barnes

Barnes spent 10 years on Merseyside, with the latter half of that decade in the Premier League.

His peak was undoubtedly higher than any other player that features on this list, but we’re being sticklers and those peak years came before England’s top flight was rebranded in ’92.

The former England international won two league titles and two FA Cups at Liverpool and was particularly unplayable with 28 goals in the 1989-90 league campaign. He was still pretty handy in the Premier League era, but there was a pronounced dip as Graeme Souness struggled to get the best out of him.

2. Michael Owen

The youth of today might only recognise Owen for his shamelessness in advertising any company that’ll give him a big enough sack of cash and his utter banality as a pundit.

But as a player breaking through at Liverpool, Owen was absolutely electric. The most exciting youngster on the planet. He scored over 150 goals for his boyhood club and won plenty of silverware, including a Ballon d’Or.

READ: An ode to a young Michael Owen, once England’s most exciting player

1. Sadio Mane

He’s fended off tough competition but there could only be one winner.

The last wearer of Liverpool’s No.10 shirt won everything there was to win for Liverpool and was among the first names on the teamsheet during one of the most successful periods in the club’s history.

Undoubtedly one of the greatest players of the Premier League era. No pressure, Alexis.

READ NEXT: Ranking every Liverpool captain of the PL era from worst to best

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name the Liverpool XI from Joe Cole’s debut in 2010?

Alexis Mac Allister Quick Reads Liverpool