It was the summer when football came home, England were half-decent and Paul Gascoigne had his last hurrah. It was also the summer when English football, inspired by the European Championships being held on home soil, really started to open up to foreign players.

For Liverpool that meant Patrick Berger. One of the best players in the tournament, he had been pivotal in the Czech Republic’s surprise run to the final where they were only beaten by an Oliver Bierhof goal in extra-time.

The truth that has since been forgotten is that Berger’s move to Liverpool was an accident of circumstances. The player that Evans really wanted was Karel Poborsky but, after a summer of dithering, he opted to move to Manchester United. Perhaps pressurised into going for a foreign player because that is what everyone else was doing rather than through genuine conviction, Evans promptly turned to Berger.

The feeling that Evans wasn’t really that enamoured with Berger would last till the end of his time at Liverpool. Unable to really figure out where best to play Berger, it wasn’t long before he decided that the best way of solving the conundrum was to leave him out of the side altogether.

Even worse, within a year Evans made a move for Oyvind Leonhardsen. If there ever was a sign of Liverpool’s declining standard it was that of buying players from Wimbledon who, with their long ball tactics and crazy gang mentality, were the antithesis to what Liverpool stood for in all respect.

Just as Leonhardsen was the complete opposite of Berger. Limited both technically and tactically, he had neither the flair nor the brilliance of Berger. Yet he was better in one respect: consistency. Evans knew what he would be getting from Leonhardsen each whereas with Berger it was brilliance one day, mediocrity the next.

Yet things had started off fantastically well for Berger. Two goals in his second game for the club were followed by another brace on his first full start against Chelsea the feeling was that Liverpool had finally found the man to take some pressure of Steve McManaman’s back.

This was, after all, a time when clubs came to Anfield with the sole tactic of trying to hack down McManaman in the belief that, by doing so, they would be stopping Liverpool. Sadly that is often how it turned out to be.

Berger’s arrival changed that. Here was a player who didn’t have McManaman’s ability to dribble his way past players yet who had the skill to turn the direction of a game with one pass.

The problem was that the side couldn’t really carry two players for whom defending meant trotting back when possession was lost. And, often, the one to lose out was Berger.
All of which changed when Gerard Houllier arrived at Anfield. Much more comfortable with his continental training regime, Berger quickly became a key player, even more so when McManaman left for Real Madrid.

Sadly for him, just when he was finally looking to fulfil his potential, fate intervened. An injury suffered in a 4-3 defeat at Leeds saw him miss most of the 2000-01 season even if he did return to play a key role in the FA Cup final win over Arsenal.

In truth, Berger never really recovered from that injury. Eventually, his contract at Liverpool ran out and, although he enjoyed good times both at Portsmouth and at Aston Villa, he never really was as good as he was at Liverpool

A few days ago, Berger left English football to return to his first love of Sparta Prague. His parting contribution: urging his then Aston Villa team-mate Gareth Barry to join Liverpool.

Berger’s Finest Moments

3 Shocking Chelsea
Flushed with television money, Chelsea tried to gate-crash their way to the top of English football by signing a host of Liverpool players. They travelled to Liverpool at the start of the 1996-97 season looking to build on an a good start but were quickly sent back to London with a 5-1 defeat during which Berger scored twice. It was his first Anfield start.

2 Total Football
Ok, so it was only against Derby and Liverpool were already four up. Yet it shouldn’t diminish anything from the beauty of this move which Berger finished in a manner that became typical of him.



1 Setting up Owen’s Final
Liverpool had been second best for the whole match yet Arsenal had only managed to score once and failed to capitalise on a host of chances. Then Michael Owen came on to get the draw for Liverpool. Still Arsenal pressed and pushed everybody forward. Yet in their urgency to kill of the game, and tired after having done most of the running, a stray pass gets to Berger. The Czech, another second half substitute promptly spins round and sends a perfect long-field pass to Owen who goes on to score Liverpool’s winner.



And finally, here's a great compilation of his goal (although best watched with sound switched off):