Liverpool FC Players With Most Red Cards

gerrard being sent off red card for liverpool

There are any number of things that can result in a game’s direction changing within a fraction of a second. Someone could score an absolute screamer, for example, or they could overhit a back-pass that slips past the goalkeeper and into the back of the net.

During the 2023-2024 season, Liverpool seemed to concede the first goal of the game almost every time they played, putting them on the back foot from the outset. Yet perhaps the biggest issue comes in the form of red cards, which sees your team reduced to ten men for the rest of the game. The question is, which players were the biggest culprits of getting sent off for the Reds?

The Top Ten

One of the best resources for information about Liverpool players is the excellent LFCHistory.net. Unfortunately, even they only have information about players seeing red that mostly dates back to the 1990-1991 season, with incomplete information the rest of the time.

In other words, Kenny Dalglish could’ve been going around and two-footing everyone every chance he got in the 1980s, spending most of his career serving a suspension, and we wouldn’t know about it. That is worth bearing in mind as you look through the following list of players:

Player Number of Red Cards
Steven Gerrard 7
Jamie Carragher 3
Igor Biscan 3
Didi Hamman 3
Ian St John 3
Javier Mascherano 3
Lucas Leiva 2
Jordan Henderson 2
Jock McNab 2
Pepe Reina 2

The list of players above has some well-known names in and a couple that will be a little bit less recognisable to many. Here is a closer look at them all:

Steven Gerrard – 7 Red Cards

Steven Gerrard is considered to be one of the best players in the history of Liverpool Football Club, and not just because of recency bias. If he had been a Red during pretty much any other era then he would still have been one of the best players in the team, yet his personal trophy cabinet would have a lot more medals in it.

For all of his undoubted talent, though, he was a player who could demonstrate something of a temper from time to time, which is shown in the fact that he has more than double the number of red cards to his name than any other player on the list, getting sent of seven times during his time as a Red.

His first came, perhaps somewhat predictably, against Everton in the September of 1999. The 19-year-old came off the bench and was sent off in the 90th minute for a challenge against Kevin Campbell. April 2001 saw his second, this time against Leeds, then in September of the same year he was sent off against Aston Villa. It was another two years until his third came, this time for a second yellow against Chelsea.

March 2006 and another red against Everton, receiving two yellow cards in 18 minutes. Then there were two successive reds against Manchester United, first in January 2011 then in March 2015.

Jamie Carragher – 3 Red Cards

If it wasn’t going to be Steven Gerrard at the top of this list then it was likely to be Jamie Carragher. The Bootle-born Liverpool defender was always a fiery character, whilst his chances of being shown the red card were increased by the fact that he was a defender.

It is, then, somewhat to his credit that he was only sent to the stands three times during a career that saw him take to the pitch more than 700 times. His first red card came in a game against Charlton Athletic, with ‘Carra’ jostling with Martin Pringle and accidentally catching him in the face with a flailing arm. The referee didn’t think it was an accident, though.

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Mike Reed decided to show the 21-year-old a red card, teaching him a lesson about his defensive technique. Carragher would later joke that it was an example of ‘great defending‘. His second red card came in an FA Cup tie against Arsenal when the central defender threw a coin back into the crowd that had been thrown at him, with the act leading to the threat of legal action after a complaint was made against him.

Mike Riley didn’t hesitate to send him off. It took another seven years before his final red card game, this time in a 3-1 loss to Fulham in which Liverpool actually had two men sent off, Carragher for a professional foul.

Igor Biscan – 3 Red Cards

It perhaps says something about Croatian player Igor Biscan that he saw the same number of red cards for Liverpool during a career that lasted 118 games as Jamie Carragher did across more than 700.

He will always be fondly remembered by supporters for the famous flag that said, “SuperCroatIgorBiscanUsedToBeAtrocious”. He also took after Steven Gerrard a little bit, insomuch as his first red card in a Liverpool shirt came during the Merseyside Derby. This time it was for a late challenge on David Unsworth during a thrilling match that finished 3-2 to Liverpool at Goodison Park.

That game is probably best remembered for the free-kick from Gary McAllister that secured the three points for Liverpool, but Biscan’s sending off somehow made that result all the funnier.

The Croat also saw red that season during the FA Cup, with Biscan receiving two yellow cards for fouls against Rotherham players. His final red card in a Liverpool shirt came in less amusing circumstances, with the Reds crashing out of the UEFA Cup after Marseille scoring from the penalty spot when Biscan caused a professional foul on Steve Marlet, for which he was shown a straight red.

Didi Hamann – 3 Red Cards

There aren’t many players who have gone down in the estimation of Liverpool fans after leaving the club quite like Dietmar Hamann. The German arrived from Newcastle United for £8 million and was one of the key players during the treble-winning campaign of 2000-2001.

He was also the reason many people believe that the Reds won the Champions League in 2005 in such spectacular fashion by coming from 3-0 down against AC Milan, scoring one of the penalties even though he’d broken his foot. Well before that, though, the player saw red for the Reds when he committed a two-footed lunge on Bernt Haas.

That came in a Premier League game against Sunderland, with referee Steve Bennett going straight to his pocket. Liverpool appealed the decision but it was turned down. It wasn’t the first time that he’d been sent off playing for the Reds, though.

That came a year before during a 2-0 loss to Arsenal, with Patrick Viera being sent to the stands for the home side and Gary McAllister receiving his marching orders alongside Hamann. That time Graham Poll admitted an error after the game, meaning no appeal was necessary. It is Hamann’s general approach to life after leaving Liverpool that has turned most Reds off him, though.

Ian St John – 3 Red Cards

It certainly says something about a player’s career and their discipline if they can feature on an incomplete list like this even though they left the club in 1971. Signed by Liverpool for a fee worth the equivalent of a little of £1 million in today’s money, Ian St John was brought in by Bill Shankly to help the Reds earn promotion out of the Second Division.

The Scottish manager would later say that the arrival of ‘Saint’ along with Ron Yeats was the turning point for the club, who would go on to become one of the most dominant forces in all of English football. That was, at least in part, thanks St John’s fiery streak.

Never one to hide his light behind a bushel, he got into numerous fights during his time at Liverpool, both on and off the pitch. One of the most famous red cards of his career came against Fulham in 1966, with Mark Pearson taking exception to a tackle that the Scot had committed and grabbing him by the head.

St John responded by punching him, which sent the Fulham player to the floor and the Liverpool one to the stands. He was also sent off at Coventry, with the player himself admitting, “I had a quick temper, which was a bad thing.” Given what Liverpool won with him, maybe that’s only for the opposition.

Javier Mascherano – 3 Red Cards

It is, perhaps, something of a cliché to say that South American players have a temper. Even so, there have been a decent amount of them that have fallen foul of the authorities over the years. Luis Suárez, for example, never got sent off for the Reds but had numerous bans for the likes of biting and racial abuse of opposition players. In the case of Javier Mascherano, it was arguably as much to do with the role that he was asked to carry out for Liverpool as the fact that he was from Argentina, given his role as a defensive midfielder. He needed to clean up after his fellow midfielders and protect the defence.

His most famous red card in a Liverpool shirt came when the Reds took on Manchester United, with a yellow card being brandished for a late tackle on Paul Scholes. Given Scholes was the master of late tackles himself, perhaps that one could have been let go. He then began a campaign of sniping at the referee, continuing to criticise him every chance he got and when he did it just moments after Fernando Torres had been booked for dissent he suffered the same fate.

That was the final straw for Steve Bennett, who showed him a second yellow in a match that Liverpool lost 3-0 to their fierce rivals.

Lucas Leiva – 2 Red Cards

Is it just a coincidence that the next player on our list of those that have seen the most red cards during the Liverpool careers is also South American? Yes, it is, but Brazilian Lucas Leiva was on the receiving end of the referee’s wrath on more than one occasion.

As with Mashcerano, Leiva was tasked with playing as a defensive midfielder, which left many Liverpool fans confused given the country of his birth. The Kop had expected a flair player with an eye for goal rather than one who seemed to want to give away free-kicks whenever possible. Which team did he get sent off against? Who else but Everton.

The Reds had already lost Steven Gerrard to injury in the FA Cup fourth round replay against the Blues, so they needed the midfield to be as disciplined as possible. That isn’t a note that the Brazilian received, having been on the end of a late challenge from Steven Pienaar. Lucas, having been booked early in the second-half, committed a cynical trip on Joleon Lescott and was shown a second yellow by Alan Wiley.

That was 15 minutes from the full-time whistle, with the match going to extra-time and Liverpool ending up on the receiving end of a 1-0 defeat, heading out of the cup as a result.

Jordan Henderson – 2 Red Cards

Jordan Henderson should have gone down in history as a legendary Liverpool captain. Not only did he lift the sixth European Cup in the club’s history, the former Sunderland player was also the first man with the armband on to lift the Premier League trophy when the Reds won the top-flight title for the first time since the rebrand at the end of the 2019-2020 season.

Sadly, his decision to turn his back on the LGBTQ+ community that he had previously purposed to represent by going to Saudi Arabia for a big pay packet meant that many supporters will always think of him with disappointment at his actions when he left.

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When he was in a Liverpool shirt there is no question that he gave his all, even though he regularly faced abuse from his own supporters. Sometimes that exuberance went overboard, such as during Liverpool’s match against Manchester City during the title run-in of 2013-2014.

He was sent off during the closing moments of the game, meaning that he would be absent for the game against Chelsea. Brendan Rodgers, the manager at the time, later admitted that he knew that the Reds would struggle to win the title without the player’s influence on the team, which ultimately proved to be absolutely right.

Jock McNab – 2 Red Cards

As with Ian St John, it says something when I player who was born in 1894 is well-known enough to make it onto the list of the ten players with the most red cards in their time at Liverpool. In truth, John McNab, better known as Jock, probably isn’t someone many Liverpool supporters nowadays will have heard of. Born in Cleland in Scotland, he played for Ballshill Athletic prior to signing for the Reds in the November of 1919.

Initially struggling to break into the Liverpool side during his first two seasons at Anfield, he eventually played 200 league games and was an integral part of the team that won back-to-back titles.

A tough customer on the pitch and referred to as ‘tall, stouthearted and of great staying power’, he added weight and strength to Liverpool’s back line. His second red card came on Valentine’s Day in 1925, sent to the stands for kicking a Newcastle player in a fracas that also saw Liverpool’s Walter Wandsworth sent off, along with Urwin for the Magpies.

In some ways, he was the first in a long line of Liverpool defenders who  were known for their physically imposing nature and ability to make opposition players think twice before deciding to get involved in anything with one of the other players in Red.

Pepe Reina – 2 Red Cards

It is probably fair to say that you wouldn’t really expect to see many goalkeepers on a list of players to be shown the most red cards during their time at Liverpool, given the nature of the position. It is also worth noting that any of Glenn Hysén, Ray Kennedy, Steven McMahon, James Milner, Rob Jones and Robbie Fowler could also have been on this list, given that they also got sent off twice whilst at the club.

Yet the very fact that Pepe Reina was a goalkeeper is what makes it much more interesting to select him as the tenth and final player on our list.

His first red came in a game against the club’s then-fierce rivals Chelsea in the Premier League. The London club was already 2-0 up against us in the fourth time we’d played each other that season, with Reina taking his frustration out on Arjen Robben, shoving him in the face.

That was in the 82nd minute, which is relevant because it was in the 83rd minute that he saw red for the second time in his Liverpool career; this time against Newcastle United. In another quirk of fate, that was also in a game that the Reds lost 2-0. As he collected a header he was fouled by James Perch, squaring up to him with his head and being sent off.

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