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Liverpool might have a settled squad these days, but there are plenty who have stopped by at Anfield before disappearing without a trace. Those include 11 players who made just a single Premier League appearance for the Reds.
Dozens of players left while stuck in single figures for appearances, from loanees like Steven Caulker (three games) to academy men who never properly broke through like Dani Pacheco (five).
The real gems, though, are those with just a single Premier League appearance to their name for the Reds. There are 11 in total, not including Kaide Gordon, who is still at the club and will likely add to his one league appearance to date.
Rafa Camacho
When Camacho made his Liverpool league debut in January 2019 against Crystal Palace – as a late sub for Mohamed Salah, no less – few imagined it would also be his final game for the club.
The Portuguese winger had already played in the FA Cup defeat to Wolves, a full 90 on that occasion, but he was allowed to move back home to join Sporting Lisbon that same summer.
It hasn’t exactly gone to plan. While Sporting have gone from strength to strength, winning two cups and a league title in the last 14 months, Camacho was first relegated to the B team then sent out on loan to Rio Ave. He is now at Belenenses, for whom he’s made seven league starts in 2021-22.
Sergi Canos
Canos’ nine league minutes were all he got in any competition, as part of a young Reds side given an outing by Jurgen Klopp at the end of the 2015-16 season.
None of the 11 players to start that day are still on the books at Anfield.
After a season at Norwich, Canos moved back to Brentford, where he had spent most of 2015-16 on loan. It couldn’t have gone much better for him in west London. He’s helped the Bees to the Premier League for the first time and they’ve reached the magical 40-point mark with four games to spare.
#TBT
🎵Oh Sergi Canos, oooh ahhh, I wanna know how you scored that goal 🎵It’s two years to the day since @sergicanos announced himself with that strike against Reading pic.twitter.com/IH6oHdhgiK
— Brentford FC (@BrentfordFC) December 28, 2017
Conor Coady
Coady would have surely loved to make more than one league appearance for his hometown club, but he can’t be too unhappy with how his career has panned out.
That one game came in May 2013, as a late replacement for Philippe Coutinho away at Fulham, although he also got a run-out against Anzhi in that season’s Europa League.
He’s now spending the 22-23 season at Everton, on loan from Wolves, and is expected to be named in England’s World Cup squad; pretty good going for someone who went five years between his first and second game in the top flight.
Stephen Darby
Darby played more times in the Champions League than the Premier League, though his one game in the latter ended in victory.
The defender replaced Philipp Degen late in a 2-0 win over Tottenham in 2010 before going out on a series of loans. He eventaully joined Bradford in 2012 and spent five years at Valley Parade.
Sadly, he was forced to retire at 29 after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease and has since set up his own charity with the aim of finding a cure for the condition.
David Raven
After coming through the Liverpool academy, teenage defender Raven had the honour of coming off the bench for Sami Hyypia in a Premier League defeat at Southampton.
It was his third senior game, after a couple of cup outings, but also his last.
Raven spent a fair chunk of his career with Carlisle, and north of the border with Inverness Caledonian Thistle, but moved closer to home in 2018 when he joined non-league Warrington Town. He played his final season in 2020-21 at Marine before returning to Warrington to become assistant manager.
With opportunities so hard to come by at Anfield, Raven himself took the brave step of cancelling his contract early.
READ: The story of David Raven’s three games for Liverpool & why quitting was easy
Patrice Luzi
The problem with having a goalkeeper as reliable as Jerzy Dudek is the back-ups rarely get a look-in.
Luzi was at Liverpool for three years but only stepped onto a Premier League pitch once, replacing Dudek in a 1-0 win at Chelsea in January 2004.
He left Anfield a week after the 2005 Champions League final, having not even made the bench for that game, and the last of his games for final top-flight club Rennes came in 2008, long before his 30th birthday.
Daniele Padelli
The problem with having a goalkeeper as reliable as Pepe Reina is the back-ups rarely get a look-in.
Italian stopper Padelli joined on loan for the second half of the 2006-07 season at the age of just 21. With Reina and second-choice Jerzy Dudek given a rest ahead of the 2007 Champions League final, he earned a start against Charlton and conceded to Matt Holland and Darren Bent in a 2-2 draw.
He has spent the rest of his career back in Italy and made just nine appearances for Inter Milan across a four-year spell. Now 36, he joined Udinese in summer 2021 and has been deployed just as sparingly.
Jon Newby
The first Liverpool Premier League debutant of the 21st century, Newby replaced Vladimir Smicer in a goalless draw with Middlesbrough in January 2000.
After a handful of cup appearances that same season, and multiple loans in the years after, Newby moved on to Bury before moving around the lower leagues and non-league, including a stint at hometown club Warrington Town.
He’s had his first taste of management as player-boss of Colwyn Bay in the early 2010s and has since worked as a youth coach and scout for Liverpool.
We spoke to him about his time at Anfield.
READ: The story of Jon Newby and his one Premier League game for Liverpool
Jordan Rossiter
Rossiter was highly rated at Anfield when he got his first-team chance under Brendan Rodgers, scoring on his debut in the League Cup and coming on for Lucas in one of Rodgers’ last games, a 0-0 draw with Arsenal in the 2015-16 season.
He played a few times in that season’s Europa League, including one game against Sion after Jurgen Klopp had taken over, but left for Rangers that summer.
The midfielder went out on loan to Fleetwood Town in 2019, a move which was made permanent in 2020.
Istvan Kozma
Yes, we know Kozma made more than one league appearance for Liverpool. But five of his six came in the 1991-92 season, before the English top flight’s big rebrand.
He played just once in the new-fangled Premier League in 1992-93 before Graeme Souness decided he’d seen enough.
Kozma spent most of the rest of his career in his native Hungary and was voted the fourth-worst player in Premier League history by the Times in 2007. Ouch.
Pedro Chirivella
Another youngster of whom more was expected, Chirivella spent seven years on Liverpool’s books, making a single league appearance in a 3-1 loss to Swansea in May 2016.
The defensive midfielder played 10 games in the cups and Europa League, but was allowed to join Nantes in 2020, where he remains.
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