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Liverpool enjoyed their first ever season on the European Cup in 1964 and were drawn against a brilliant Anderlecht team that mostly contained the Belgian National Team. In those days, players weren't issued fixed shirt numbers, they wore the shirt corresponding to their position. When Liverpool manager Bill Shankly read out the team before the game, they were all surprised when defender Tommy Smith was giving the No.10 shirt - the normal number for a striker.

As Smith tells it, one of the Anderlecht defenders tried to mark him for the first 20-minutes of the game, bamboozled by the wrong shirt number. Whether that contributed to Liverpool's 3-nil victory or not is a matter of conjecture, but it is surely an example of Shankly's genius.

Smith retained the No.10 shirt number for the rest of his Liverpool career.

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14y ago

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