Top 25 Liverpool players of the Premier League era - #4

Sports Mole's countdown of the top 25 Liverpool players in Premier League history continues with number four - Robbie Fowler.

Robbie Fowler

Liverpool's Robbie Fowler holds aloft The Worthington Cup and Man of the Match trophies after beating Birmingham City at The Millenium Stadium in Cardiff Sunday 25 February 2001© Getty Images

At a club which boasts the likes of Kenny Dalglish, Roger Hunt and Ian Rush amongst their former players, it takes a special talent to be regarded as perhaps the best natural goalscorer in Liverpool's history.

Robbie Fowler can certainly lay a claim to that title, though, having burst onto the scene in 1993 and gone on to establish himself as one of the all-time great Premier League strikers.

Such was the esteem Liverpool fans held their hometown hero in that they bestowed the nickname of 'God' upon Fowler, whose blistering start to his Anfield career gave a glimpse of what was to come.

Fowler scored on his Liverpool debut in a League Cup tie against Fulham in September 1993 and went on to score five goals in the second leg two weeks later - only the fourth player in Liverpool's history to hit five in a game.

A hat-trick followed in just his fifth league game as he began with 12 goals in his first 13 outings for the club and ended the season as Liverpool's top scorer in all competitions.

Fowler went on to score another hat-trick in four minutes and 33 seconds against Arsenal the following season - a Premier League record which stood until 2015 - and he remains the only player to have scored 30 or more goals in his first three full seasons as a professional in England.

It took Fowler just 165 games to reach 100 goals for the club - one game quicker than Rush had managed - and he went on to help Liverpool to their treble of the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup in 2001, scoring in the finals of the latter two.

Injuries had slowed Fowler's progress by then, though, and he left Anfield that summer before a brief return in 2006, eventually calling time on his Liverpool career having scored 183 goals for the club - 128 of which came in the Premier League.

A general view during the UEFA Champions League last 16 round match between Arsenal and PSV Eindhoven at The Emirates Stadium on March 7, 2007
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