Last year, in an article about the time John Barnes wore number 9 for England, we noted the rare phenomenon of players who had worn numbers 3 and 10 for the Three Lions.
In fact, it turns out we slightly under-estimated the occurrence – we had thought that Andy Sinton and Ashley Young were the only ones to have done so apart from Trevor Brooking (who qualified as a result of the alphabetical system at the 1982 World Cup).
Thanks to our knowledgeable readers, it turned out that there were two more – Trevor Cherry and Gareth Barry – and that made Rafa Benítez’s failure to sign the latter in 2009 all the more tragic as it would have completed an unusual set.
The aforementioned Barnes wore 8, 9, 10 and 11 at various stages for England while Robbie Fowler wore 9-11 inclusive and Michael Owen wore 11 on his debut against Chile in 1998 and 10 thereafter. None of that is hugely surprising – with England still sticking by and large to 1-11 (though Tuesday’s friendly against Belgium was an exception and what we hope is not the start of a new trend), players will move around.
The Liverpool examples above all appeared in 10 and other ‘attacking’ numbers – again, unremarkable, but there have been a few Reds who have worn 10 and the lower digits more associated with defenders or defensive midfielders. Unfortunately, as outlined, no Liverpool player has worn both 3 and 10 for England, but there are instances of 2, 4, 5 and 6.
2 and 10 – Steven Gerrard and Trent Alexander-Arnold
Alexander-Arnold was the jumping-off point for the article, based on a query from Simon Treanor – who is very au fait with Liverpool numbering idiosyncracies – last autumn.
Having appeared in midfield twice during the summer, Alexander-Arnold had ended up with 10 by default as Declan Rice had 4 and Jordan Henderson had 8 – he was selected at right-back against Australia and naturally wore 2.
He was back in 10 in November for games against Malta and North Macedonia and Simon asked if he was the first player to wear 2 and 10 for England – to which we smugly responded that he wasn’t even the first Liverpool player to do so.
When Steven Gerrard first emerged, he sometimes played at right-back and it was on the right flank in a five-man defence that he made his England debut against Ukraine in 2000.
While he became most associated with the number 4 for his country after that, he did appear once in 9 – playing just off centre-forward Owen against Hungary in 2006 – and then donned 10 and later 11 in the 2008-09 period. He never wore 8, his Liverpool number, for England.
4 and 10 – Gerrard, Alexander-Arnold, Terry McDermott and Ray Kennedy
Not a hugely difficult one to find examples of, given that 4 is usually to be found in central midfield for England – and with 7 up front during Kevin Keegan’s era, 10 was often in midfield.
Terry McDermott usually appeared in 10 or 11 for Liverpool and for England he wore those as well as 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 (once, against Denmark in 1979, with Keegan the tip of a 4-3-3/4-5-1 spear).
Like Alexander-Arnold, McDermott managed to have a numerical jolt in consecutive starts just before that Denmark game – 10 against Northern Ireland and Wales in May of 1979, he wore 4 against Sweden in June.
5 and 10 – Ray Kennedy
You might have seen his name in the previous heading for those who wore 4 and 10 and wondered why he wasn’t mentioned – he gets a special section all to himself.
For the England national team, 5 is almost always a centre-back – Declan Rice against Belgium in November 2020 is an exception of the utmost rarity. Kennedy wore 5 on the left flank for Liverpool, but for England he was often number 10 or 11 and he wore 4 once.
His Liverpool colleague, centre-back Phil Thompson, had a preference for 4, which briefly made 6 a midfielder’s number for England and Kennedy wore that on three occasions.
The October 1977 game away to Luxembourg provided Kennedy the chance to wear his club number for his country. With England needing a big win to get ahead of Italy on goal difference in the battle to qualify for the 1978 World Cup, manager Ron Greenwood went with a three-man defence – Trevor Cherry, Emlyn Hughes and Dave Watson wore numbers 2, 3 and 4 respectively and Kennedy had 5.
Unfortunately for England, they could only muster a 2-0 win and, while they finished level on points with Italy in the four-team group, they missed out with a goal difference of 11 compared to the Italians’ 14.
6 and 10 – McDermott, Kennedy, Steve McManaman
As mentioned, McDermott and Kennedy wore 6 for England but, after Thompson’s retirement, it took until a formation change by Terry Venables in the mid-1990s for it to appear in midfield again.
Steve McManaman had worn 17 – his Liverpool number – in the 1995 Umbro Cup and he would also have it for Euro 96, the only starter across England’s five games to have a number greater than 11.
The summer of 1996 would see him switch to 7 at Anfield (he might have become Liverpool’s number 11 two years previously) and it was a number he had worn for England against Bulgaria in March of that year, having previously worn 10 and 11.
Against Bulgaria, England had a flat back four but their next game was a friendly at home to Croatia in April and Venables opted for a 3-5-2 system, with Mark Wright wearing 5, flanked by Gary Neville (2) and Stuart Pearce (3). That meant 6 had to be filled and, with captain David Platt back in the side wearing 7, it went to McManaman.
In May, Robert Lee wore 6 against Hungary, a game McManaman missed, but he was back for the next match, against China, and he wore 10 as he and Nick Barmby (7) played support to Shearer.
And an unused sub (wearing 16) in that Croatia game where McManaman wore 6, was another Liverpool player who wore a *very* out-of-kilter number 6 on his only England start against Japan in the previous summer’s Umbro Cup… Stan Collymore!