Liverpool FC Record Goalscorers

Mohamed Salah Playing For Liverpool

It has long been said that Anfield is an intelligent football crowd, with the Kop knowing what it loves in a footballer. Industry and skill are obviously two things that everyone in the ground appreciates, but when all is said and done there is one thing that football fans all over the world like more than anything else: goals.

Those that are able to put the ball into the back of the net on a regular basis will always earn the plaudits above all others, with the Reds having a decent share of some of the best in the business on that front. It is also an ever-evolving feast, given the fact that football keeps being played year after year and will be until the world ends.

The Top Ten

The first thing to do is to have a look at the top ten players who have scored more goals than any other. Here is a look at how many games they scored as well as how many games they scored them in, looking at all competitions:

Player Goals Scored Games Played
Ian Rush 346 660
Roger Hunt 285 492
Gordon Hodgson 241 377
Billy Liddell 228 534
Mohamed Salah 211 349
Steven Gerrard 186 710
Robbie Fowler 183 369
Kenny Dalglish 172 515
Michael Owen 158 297
Harry Chambers 151 339

Now that we know which players make up the top ten in Liverpool’s all-time goalscorer list, it is worth taking a closer look at the players to explain the role that they played at Anfield:

Ian Rush (346 Goals) – 229 League – 39 FA Cup – 48 League Cup – 20 Europe – 10 Other

ian rush playing for liverpool

Quite simply the best striker in the history of Liverpool Football Club, which is not a bad title to have to your name. The interesting thing about Rush is that he didn’t actually start like a player who was going to go on to be a record breaker. Both Liverpool and Manchester United were alerted to his goal-scoring prowess when he was a youth player with Deeside Primary School, going on trial at Burnley and Wrexham before being signed by Chester.

It was from Chester that Liverpool bought him, paying £300,000 for a 19-year-old, making it a global record fee for a teenager at the time. In the end, it would prove to be a steal at twice the price.

Having made his debut for the Reds against Ipswich Town on the 13th December 1980, he ended up finishing his first season having played nine games but no goals. His first goal for the senior team eventually came against the Finnish side Oulu Palloseura in the European Cup. It was just the start, with the 1983-1984 season seeing him score a hat-trick against Aston Villa, four goals against Coventry City and five against Luton Town.

It felt as if he couldn’t go 90 minutes without scoring at least one. Obviously that endeared him to the Liverpool supporters, but what did so more than anything else was that he loved scoring against Everton, netting 25 times against them; ten more than any other opponent.

Roger Hunt (285 Goals) – 244 League – 18 FA Cup – 5 League Cup – 17 Europe – 1 Other

roger hunt world cup winner

Before Ian Rush, the Kop loved Roger Hunt. It is easy to see why, given the rate at which the found the back of the net.

He was signed from Stockton Heath, the team that later became Warrington Town, bring put straight into the reserves. After scoring eight goals in six matches, Phil Taylor decided to promote him and his debut came against Scunthorpe when Billy Liddell was missing.

The 21-year-old was considered ‘not an orthodox centre-forward’ but, having scored on his debut, never looked back. Liverpool were playing in the Second Division at the time, but with Hunt as the focal point and Bill Shankly in the dugout, they eventually made it.

It was the partnership with Ian St. John that really allowed Hunt to take off, with the raise in level to the First Division doing little to slow him down. Scoring 129 times across 160 games in the next four season, helping Liverpool to the title twice, his real moment of glory came when the Reds won the FA Cup for the first time in the club’s history in 1965.

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He was also picked for England, helping the Three Lions to win the only major trophy in the nation’s history when the 1966 World Cup was played on English soil. Between 1962 and 1966, Hunt was the top-scorer for the Reds eight times in succession, netting the then-record breaking goal against Manchester United.

Gordon Hodgson (241 Goals) – 233 League – 8 FA Cup

Arguably the only thing that held Gordon Hodgson back from scoring more goals for Liverpool was the Reds not doing well in the cup competitions or playing in Europe. What helps to set him apart from Roger Hunt is the fact that 233 of Hodgson’s goals came in the First Division across 358 games, which gives him a phenomenal goals-per-game ratio.

Having come over to England from South Africa, he caught the eye when the touring side defeated the Reds 5-2, beating Everton 3-1 a few months later as the tour reached its conclusion. It was enough to persuade the board to sign him, bringing him in on the 14th December 1925.

Not only was Hodgson a brilliant goal scorer, he seemed to specialise in hat-tricks and scored 17 of them during his time at Anfield. Part of the success of Hodgson, who is not to be mistaken for his namesake Roy Hodgson who came to the club the following century and would be best forgotten, was the fact that he was regularly fit.

He played for Liverpool for nine seasons and was the club’s top-scorer in seven of them, going toe-to-toe with Dixie Dean at Goodison Park for the honour of being the city’s best striker. An all-round sportsman, Hodgson, also played 56 first-class cricket matches for Lancashire as a fast bowler.

Billy Liddell (228 Goals) – 215 League – 13 FA Cup

billy liddell display liverpool fc museum
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Liverpool has a long history of players from Scotland, with Billy Liddell arguably being the first genuinely brilliant one that arrived at Anfield. He came to the club in the July of 1938 but didn’t sign a professional contract until nine months later.

Matt Busby, one-time Liverpool captain and later Manchester United manager, discovered that Manchester City were looking to sign Liddell and told Liverpool manager George Kay that the Reds should get him instead.

Before signing for the Reds, Liddell worked at an accountancy firm called Simon Jude & West, with his parents having it put in his contract that he should continue doing so.

That was just in case things didn’t work out for him as a player, but they needn’t have worried. He enlisted in the RAF when the Second World War broke out, finally playing his first game for Liverpool against Crewe on New Year’s Day 1940. His first official game, meanwhile, didn’t arrive until an FA Cup match against Chester in 1946.

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Goals were an easy thing for him to score, netting 115 times in five Second Division seasons, eventually choosing to retire at the age of 39 just before the Shankly revolution took hold. His last appearance came in a 1-0 loss to Southampton on the 31st August 1960.

Mohamed Salah (211 Goals) – 155 League – 6 FA Cup – 2 League Cup – 47 Europe – 1 Other

Mo Salah

There are often curious quirks of fate when it comes to football, with the story of Mohamed Salah being a perfectly good example. The Liverpool manager at the time, Jürgen Klopp, was considering making a move for other players when the Egyptian became available, his name put forward to the manager by Michael Edwards, the club’s transfer guru.

Having previously played for Chelsea but failed to make any sort of impression in the Premier League, there was plenty of skepticism from many around him when he arrived for a fee of around £44 million. Sufficed to say, the scepticism didn’t last very long at all.

Salah scored 44 goals in his first season, which was the second-highest single season tally of any player in the club’s history. Working alongside Sadio Mané and Roberto Firmino, the trio made their mark and helped Liverpool to a Champions League win in the 2018-2019 season and a first title of the Premier League era the year after.

Whilst some rival supporters tried to label him as a ‘one season wonder’ during the early part of his Liverpool career, he netted 27 times in his second season, 23 in his third and 31 in his fourth and fifth. With 30 goals in his sixth campaign and 25 in his seventh, it’s no wonder the Kop called him the ‘Egyptian King’.

Steven Gerrard (186 Goals) – 120 League – 15 FA Cup – 9 League Cup – 41 Europe – 1 Other

Steven Gerrard

There are lots of reasons why Liverpool supporters loved Steven Gerrard, with the fact that he was a local boy being just one of them. The Scouser was strong in the tackle, able to hit the ball with a foot like a traction engine and was one of the best passers in the game.

It was the fact that he was such a good leader that saw him take over the Liverpool captaincy from Sammi Hyypia, originally breaking into the time thanks to an injury to Jamie Redknapp. He likely would have been played more by manager Gérard Houllier but for the fact that growth spurts caused him problems with his physicality when he was first breaking through.

By the 2000-2001 season, Gerrard was an important part of the Frenchman’s team and he played 50 times as the Reds won the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup treble. When Rafa Benítez took over in 2004, he took Gerrard’s game to another level and he scored a screamer of a goal against Olympiakos to keep Liverpool’s Champions League dream alive.

A goal in the final gave the Reds hope of coming back from 3-0 down against AC Milan in the ‘Miracle of Istanbul’, whilst another rocket of a goal in the FA Cup final a year later would secure another comeback. In the end, the only major trophy Gerrard didn’t win was the Premier League.

Robbie Fowler (183 Goals) – 128 League – 12 FA Cup – 29 League Cup – 14 Europe

robbie fowler scores against newcastle 4-3

It says something about Liverpool as a club that two of the top ten highest goalscorers in its history come from the city in which it’s based. Had Robbie Fowler, AKA ‘God’ played as many games as Steven Gerrard then he likely would’ve been much higher up the table. Considered by many to be one of the most natural goalscorers ever, the lad from Toxteth grew up as an Everton fan and actually loathed Ian Rush as a kid.

It was Liverpool that signed him, though, after the club’s scout, Jim Aspinall, spotted him playing for his Under-14 side. His first goal for the Reds came in a 3-1 win over Fulham in the League Cup on the 22nd of September 1993.

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Part of the reason why Fowler didn’t get to play as many games for Liverpool as he no doubt would’ve wanted was the fact that he suffered from numerous injuries. In the 1994-1995 season he showed just how dangerous he could be, netting a hat-trick against Arsenal in just four minutes and 33 seconds, which was the fastest hat-trick in Premier League history at the time.

Roy Evans knew what a talent he was, but when Evans was replaced by Gérard Houllier the relationship wasn’t quite as good. The Frenchman ended up selling Fowler and when Rafa Benítez bought him back years later it was a little too late for all concerned.

Kenny Dalglish (172 Goals) – 118 League – 13 FA Cup – 27 League Cup – 11 Europe – 3 Other

Kenny Dalglish

There is so much more to Kenny Dalglish than just his goalscoring exploits. You can read a full profile of the Scotsman elsewhere on this site, but sufficed to say that he is one of the most important players that has ever pulled on the Red shirt. In spite of being a Rangers fan, he joined Celtic in the belief that he might be able to win the European Cup with them, given the fact that the Hoops had become the first British side to win the trophy in 1967.

Liverpool paid £440,000 to bring him to Anfield, which was a record fee between British clubs at the time. Dalglish was happy to move, thanks to Liverpool being the best team in the world at the time.

He was brought in to replace Kevin Keegan, who had left to join Hamburg SV., and Dalglish was the perfect fit. During his first season at Anfield the Scot scored 31 goals in 62 games, including the winner in the European Cup final. During his next season he scored two as Liverpool defeated Tottenham Hotspur 7-0 in a game considered by many to be one of the finest in the club’s history.

In an era of two points for a win, the Red gained a record 68 on their way to a league title. When Bob Paisley retired, Joe Fagan took over and when Fagan left the club turned to Dalglish, asking him to be player-manager, a role he fulfilled with aplomb.

Michael Owen (158 Goals) – 118 League – 8 FA Cup – 9 League Cup – 22 Europe – 1 Other

MIchael Owen

Michael Owen never really felt like the player that Liverpool supporters loved the most, with that accolade going to Robbie Fowler and then Steven Gerrard. Coming from Chester, it always felt as though Owen was and England player first and a Liverpool player second, which didn’t sit right, plus he grew up as an Everton fan.

The one thing that can’t be argued, though, is that Owen was anything other than a world-class centre-forward, breaking through to the Liverpool first-team after signing a professional contract as a 17-year-old, scoring his first goal on his debut and becoming the then-youngest goalscorer in the club’s history.

Though Owen achieved plenty with the club, there is little question that the real stand-out moment for him came in the FA Cup during the treble winning season of 2000-2001. Liverpool had been battered from pillar to post by Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal, leading to Freddie Ljungberg giving the Gunners a 1-0 lead after 72 minutes.

A brace from Owen in the space of five minutes was to take the cup away from the London club, however, delighting those in Liverpool Red and helping him to win that year’s Ballon d’Or. When Rafa Benítez arrived at Anfield in 2004 he tried to persuade Owen to stay, but the Chester-born lad left for Real Madrid, never to return to Liverpool.

Harry Chambers (151 Goals) – 135 League – 16 FA Cup

It is fair to say that Harry Chambers is not a name that will leap to the minds of most people when discussing Liverpool’s all-time top goalscorers, largely because he signed for the club in 1915 and left in 1928. Even so, he is the tenth name on our list thanks to the 151 goals that he scored across 339 appearances.

He signed for the club after knocking on the door of Tom Watson, becoming the last player that he signed prior to his death. Having signed up as a soldier when the First World War broke out, he was invalided out of the army and played a few times in Northern Ireland before ending up back in England.

His ‘wand’ of a left foot helped the Reds to win the First Division two seasons running, scoring 41 times in 71 matches. He was the club’s top scorer for four successive seasons, but missed the first two months of the 1924-1925 campaign thanks to injury and ended up netting just seven times as a result.

Known as ‘Smiler’ because of his friendly disposition, it was a shock for Liverpool fans when he was placed on the transfer list in 1926 having expressed a desire to leave the club. He stayed for another couple of years and then in 1927 was knocked off his bike by a car. He did, though, manage to creep past the 150 goal mark before he was sold.

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