During his career, Graeme Souness was known for being an aggressive footballer in the middle of the park. The Liverpool icon’s job was to battle with the opposition’s midfielders and he wasn’t afraid to get a little rough when doing so. Souness is one of the hardest footballers ever, but this wasn’t out of the ordinary during that time period. Football as a whole used to be far more aggressive than the sport we see today.
It was natural for teams to have certain players who could get physical with their opponents and Souness was one of the best at it. The Scotsman first made a name for himself at Middlesbrough and spent six years playing for the club between 1972 and 1978. He represented them 141 times, but it wasn’t until he moved to Liverpool that he took things to an elite level.
After missing out on the top flight title the season prior to Souness’ arrival, Liverpool brought the midfielder in to wrestle back their crown at the top of the table and it certainly paid off. Following the midfielder’s arrival, the Reds won five of the next six league titles and he played a key role in that. Despite his incredible career, though, he revealed that there were three players he couldn’t even ‘lay a finger on’.
The Three Players Souness Couldn’t Touch
One is a former Manchester United star
While Souness had a reputation for getting rough and into it with his opponents, the former Liverpool man admitted that there were three players who he couldn’t even ‘lay a finger on’ and those were Brazilian icon Zico, former Manchester United man John Giles and World Cup winner Alan Ball. As quoted by Balls, he said:
“I say to people, there’s two players, there is now three. There are three players I’ve never laid a finger on in my career. You know, in those days that was part of my job because I was big for a midfield player and one was Zico, too cute, had the radar… another one was Alan Ball and I’ve got to throw Johnny Giles in there, you’ve reminded me. I caught Bremner a few times but could never lay a finger on Johnny.”
All statistics courtesy of Transfermarkt and accurate as of 03/08/2025