Comments made by Graeme Souness defending his former Liverpool teammate Alan Hansen have resurfaced in the wake of the latter’s serious illness.
In 14 years at Anfield Hansen won every major honour available to him, making more than 600 appearances in one of the most decorated teams in the history of English football.
During that time the Scottish centre-back formed a formidable partnership with Mark Lawrenson in the heart of defence that spanned six-and-a-half seasons and is considered by many the greatest in the club’s history.
However, in a 2021 appearance on talkSPORT former Arsenal defender Martin Keown cited the pair as an example of players exploiting the lack of a law prohibiting backpasses in order to give the ball back to their goalkeeper and stifle potential attacks.
‘The back pass rule changed the game massively,’ he said. ‘Think about Liverpool and Hansen and Lawrenson just rolling it back to the keeper.
Footage has resurfaced of Graeme Souness (left) calling in to a radio show to defend his former Liverpool teammate (Alan Hansen)
Former Arsenal star Martin Keown claimed Hansen and his defensive partner Mark Lawrenson has exploited the lack of a back pass rule in the 1980s
‘He just kept picking it up, [Bruce] Grobbelaar, the goalkeeper would just pick it up every time you got near it.’
With the comments made live on the air Souness – who was listening to the broadcast whilst driving, immediately called in to defend his former teammates.
‘I nearly crashed my car, Martin, after what you said.’ Souness told Keown.
‘I understand there have been improvements to the game, without a shadow of a doubt, but I totally disagree with you in terms of Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson.
‘You could’ve picked any other partnership that was playing football at that time and called them out on what they would do by going back to the goalkeeper at every opportunity when put under pressure.
‘But you’ve named the best two footballing centre-halves that arguably this country has ever seen!
‘Alan Hansen, there’s never been a better footballing centre-half. I played with him, Martin, and I can tell you, Lawro wasn’t far behind him.’
Keown agreed with Souness’ evaluation but refused to retract his comment about the Liverpool defence’s tendency to look for a pass back to their goalkeeper rather than progressively moving the ball forward.
Souness however insisted that the pair were the worst possible example Keown could have chosen
Souness (left) went on to say there has ‘never been a better footballing centre half’ than Hansen (right)
Souness continued: ‘Martin, I played with them for about 300 games! I know how good they were. You couldn’t get the ball off them, they were midfield players in disguise, that’s how technically good they were.
‘The last thing they would do is go back because every part of their training was geared to go forward.
‘You made it sound, for somebody who’s not seen them play, like they couldn’t play. That’s how it sounded. You could not have picked a worse two to give an example of.’
On Sunday, Liverpool provided an update regarding their former captain’s health, noting Hansen is currently ‘seriously ill’ in hospital.
‘The thoughts and support of everyone at Liverpool FC are with our legendary former captain Alan Hansen, who is currently seriously ill in hospital,’ the club posted on their official website.
‘A defender of the utmost elegance, Hansen’s outstanding raft of honours across a 14-year spell with the Reds – he joined from Partick Thistle in 1977 – included eight league titles, three European Cups, two FA Cups and three League Cups.
‘”Jockey”, as he was known by teammates, is in the top 10 for all-time appearances for the club having played 620 matches, and the Scottish centre-back also served as Liverpool skipper for four seasons.
During their time together at Anfield Souness and Hansen won three European Cups
‘The club is currently in contact with Alan’s family to provide our support at this difficult time, and our thoughts, wishes and hopes are with Alan and all of the Hansen family.
‘We will provide any further updates as we receive them in due course, and we request that the Hansen family’s privacy is respected at this time.’
