Fowler – with whom he was described as having an almost "telepathic" understanding with – and, later Michael Owen, with Owen saying that "Liverpool at the time was built around McManaman" and was an average team whenever McManaman was not on form. Additionally, McManaman's role as the creative playmaking lynchpin in the side meant that scoring statistics alone were not often believed to measure his overall contributions. The few goals that McManaman did score often tended to be spectacular or memorable — most notably an injury-time solo goal against Celtic in the UEFA Cup, when McManaman scored after a 75-yard dribble. Other outstanding goals during his Liverpool career included goals against Aston Villa, Newcastle United and scoring the winner in a match against that season's eventual champions, Arsenal, with a stunning volley, after which he won a PFA Player of the Month award in December 1997. Reception Liverpool McManaman is generally believed to be very popular in Liverpool. On 5 September 2006, he was named #22 in the official Liverpool website's "100 Players Who Shook The Kop" list. Both Rob Jones and Robbie Fowler gave two interviews in 2012–13 in which they stated that McManaman was the greatest player they ever played alongside, with Fowler also stating that he had “played with many, many great players”, the best of whom was McManaman. In 2013, McManaman was named #20 in the official Liverpool website's second "100 Players Who Shook the Kop" list, rising by two positions. When Mark Lawrenson and Jim Beglin named McManaman in their team of the 1990s, they said that most managers in the league used the same tactic of marking McManaman to stop Liverpool and whilst it was a tremendous compliment to McManaman, the opposition could stop Liverpool because the tactical system of 3–5–2 or 3–4–1–2 was too dependent on McManaman and would fail if McManaman was off form, or if the team was not complemented by a quality defence (players who could play both wingback and centre half to cope with onslaughts), or the presence of a steely defensive midfielder, which was what happened with the team of that time. Nevertheless, McManaman was voted in on the official Liverpool FC website as the club's midfielder of the 1990s, was named by Ruud Gullit as one of his top two players from the entire Premier League era, and despite Liverpool fans' disappointment over the nature of how