{"id":7388,"date":"2026-06-06T16:43:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T16:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/?p=7388"},"modified":"2026-06-06T16:43:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T16:43:37","slug":"liverpools-greatest-no-83-vladimir-smicer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/?p=7388","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool&#8217;s Greatest &#8211; No.83: Vladimir Smicer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Years: <\/strong>1999-2005<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Appearances: <\/strong>184<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Goals: <\/strong>19<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Trophies: <\/strong>League Cup (2001, 2003), FA Cup (2001), UEFA Cup (2001), Champions League (2005)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Vladimir Smicer\u2019s Liverpool career is remembered for its moments rather than longevity. <\/p>\n<p>Injuries and inconsistency in finding form meant the Czech endured a stop-start six seasons as a Red \u2013 but he departed as a bona fide hero after helping the club clinch its fifth European Cup on his final appearance.<\/p>\n<p>The versatile attacking midfielder joined from Lens in 1999 and brought with him his infectious smile. <\/p>\n<p>He made 49 appearances in his second campaign at Anfield, the treble-winning one under <strong><u>Gerard Houllier<\/u><\/strong>including starts in the finals of the League Cup and FA Cup.<\/p>\n<p>With his eye for goal and creativity, Smicer was able to contribute as a starter or handy option off the substitutes\u2019 bench.<\/p>\n<p>A pick of his 19 strikes for Liverpool was a 90th-minute volleyed winner against Chelsea in 2002, during a title race that ultimately saw Houllier\u2019s men finish second to Arsenal. <\/p>\n<p>Smicer earned another winner\u2019s medal in 2003 when Manchester United were vanquished in the showpiece of the League Cup in Cardiff.<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Rafael Benitez<\/u><\/strong>  arrived and was unable to call upon Smicer for much of his famous first season in charge. The No.11 was available when it mattered, though.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Years: 1999-2005 Appearances: 184 Goals: 19 Trophies: League Cup (2001, 2003), FA Cup (2001), UEFA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeeworld.name.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}