There is one player who has not found hat-tricks hard to come by at Liverpool in recent years, but even he has yet to topple a record that has been in place for 38 years.
The Reds have not been short of players capable of hitting the scoreboard three or more times in a single game in recent years, with Mohamed Salah (four), Roberto Firmino (two) and Diogo Jota (one) being the most recent.
Yet, none have replicated the feat accomplished by John Wark in 1984/85.
In a span of just over four months in the 1984/85 season, Wark became the first Red to score a hat-trick in three different competitions in the same season.
The Scot’s first came against Lech Poznan in the European Cup and was followed by York City in the FA Cup, before West Brom were handed the same treatment in the league.
These hat-tricks all transpired in the space of just 171 days.
Incredibly, Wark did not notch another hat trick beyond the three that set the record in his final three seasons at Anfield.
The only players who have come close to matching the feat are Ian Rush, Michael Owen and Yossi Benayoun – scoring two hat-tricks in two different competitions in the same campaign.
It begs the question of if it can ever be topped, but for now, the accolade is only for Wark.
The former midfielder joined the club in 1984 from Ipswich, signing for a fee of £475,000 before going on to make 108 appearances under Joe Fagan and Sir Kenny Dalglish.
Roy Evans once described Wark as “one of those guys who just loved playing football. He could play at the back but was more famous for coming from midfield. Could score goals from deep and was a great all-round player.”
Wark would return to Ipswich in 1988, a decision he conceded was “hard” but was “the right thing to do,” and so it proved as he would only retire in 1997 at the age of 40.
His legacy at Liverpool lives on, but is it only a matter of time before someone replicates or surpasses his feat?
