Phil Neal

Phil Neal
Personnel
Surname	Philip George Neal
birthday	February 20, 1951
place of birth	Irchester ,  England
size	180 cm
position	Right defender
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1968-1974	Northampton Town	187 (28)
1974-1985	Liverpool FC	455 (41)
1985-1989	Bolton Wanderers	64 (3)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1976-1983	England	50 (5)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
1985-1992	Bolton Wanderers
1993-1995	Coventry City
1996	Cardiff City
1996	Manchester City (Interim)
1 Only league games are given.

Philip "Phil" George Neal (* 20th February 1951 in Irchester / Northamptonshire , England ) is a former English football player and was as full-back the only player in the ranks of Liverpool , which in the first five finals of the European Champions' Cup , the Liverpool could reach was used.

Athletic career

Neal scored a goal with a penalty in the first final of the national championship competition with Liverpool participation in 1977 against Borussia Mönchengladbach in Rome and thus helped the club to win the highest European club cup in its own history. Even in the subsequent successes in 1978 and 1981 , when both Club Bruges and Real Madrid were both beaten 1-0 in the final, Neal was in the Liverpool team.

During their fourth appearance in the final in 1984 , Neal scored another goal, in this case from free play, with the game against AS Roma ending 1: 1 after regular time and finding its winner after penalty shoot-out at Liverpool FC. The following year he missed the fifth title win by a 0-1 in a final against Juventus Turin that had become unimportant due to the disaster at Heysel Stadium , in which 39 Juventus supporters were killed and a long Liverpool ban in European club football resulted in the European national championship competition.

Until 2005 , when Liverpool won the Champions League, Neal was the only player in the club's ranks to have played in all of the finals of the competition for the club and was involved in all title wins.

Neal joined Liverpool in 1974 after having played a long time in the English minor leagues for Northampton Town . It was the first engagement of coach Bob Paisley , who was looking for a replacement for the aging Chris Lawler . Although he initially played a few games on the left, he would later make a name for himself as a physically strong and hardworking right-back.

He won his first of seven English championships in 1976 , along with the UEFA Cup . In the following year he was part of the team that was aiming for a unique triple of championship, FA Cup and European national championship title. After the championship could be successfully defended, however, Liverpool lost in the FA Cup final against Manchester United at Wembley Stadium . Despite this disappointment, the team recovered well and won the first European national championship trophy only a short time later.

As he had shown by his late goal in the European Cup final, Neal was a good penalty taker and this role had previously etat standard adopted for the season, although he missed a penalty in the emotional Merseyside - Derby against Everton had missed. Because of this task, he increased the goal account during his Liverpool career to 60 hits, which would otherwise have been unusually high for a defensive player of his style of play.

In 1978 Liverpool lost the League Cup final to Nottingham Forest with Neal but defended the European title. Only a year later, Liverpool won the English championship again and in 1980 this success was repeated . The league trophy then followed in 1981 , together with the third European national championship cup . The club then defended the league cup over the next two years and crowned this with winning the English championship.

In all this time, Neal never missed a single league game for his club. He played 365 games in a row between 1975 and 1983 until he had to sit out for a game due to an injury.

In 1984 Liverpool won the fourth European national title with Neal, again adding the championship and the league cup. Neal continued to be a regular throughout the season and was named team captain by trainer Joe Fagan after Graeme Souness left for Sampdoria Genoa .

However, the following season was unhappy and Liverpool remained, in the year after the Heysel disaster and with a clearly battered reputation, without winning the title. Fagan then resigned as a coach and Neal lost his captaincy under the new coach Kenny Dalglish , who preferred Alan Hansen .

Neal started the season in his usual position but was soon replaced by Steve Nicol , a young Scottish defender. A short time later, Neal left the club after 11 years in Anfield to work as a player-coach for the Bolton Wanderers . When Liverpool won the championship again in 1986 , Neal received his eighth medal due to the games played at the beginning of the season . Liverpool's win of the FA Cup in the same year, however, was a bit of a bitter irony for Neal, as this cup, which Liverpool won the year before Neal's signing and the year after Neal's departure, was never won by Neal himself.

He ended his football career in 1989 after over 700 league appearances and 50 international matches for England between 1976 and 1983, in which he scored five goals. Only Gary Neville was used more often in the right full-back position.

Neal left Bolton after further coaching years and was Kotrainer under Graham Taylor for the English national team. In this unsuccessful collaboration, Neal's lack of assertiveness and the lack of his own views on Taylor was criticized. This became particularly clear in a documentary by Channel 4 , which the station broadcast after the US did not qualify for the 1994 World Cup and Taylor's resignation. Neal became a public target of ridicule in the future, despite continuing to work as a coach. He spent two seasons at Coventry City and was then active at Cardiff City and Manchester City .

In the recent past, Neal has mainly appeared as a football expert for various television and radio programs.

successes

• European championship champions: 1977, 1978, 1981, 1984
• UEFA Cup Winner: 1976
• English champion: 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, (1986)
• English league cup winner: 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984
• Community Shield Winner: 1976, 1977 *, 1979, 1980, 1982 * (shared title)

Web links

• Photo by Phil Neal