Name:
John BalmerNickname: "
Jack"
Country:
England
Club:
Liverpool F.C.Position: *
CF,
SSSide: RF/BS
Age: 30-32 years (06/02/1916)
Height: 179 cm
Weight: 71 kg
Attack:
84Defence:
38Balance:
70Stamina:
78Top Speed:
81Acceleration:
83Response:
81Agility:
84Dribble Accuracy:
82Dribble Speed:
81Short Pass Accuracy:
80Short Pass Speed:
75Long Pass Accuracy:
77Long Pass Speed:
75Shot Accuracy:
85Shot Power:
83Shot Technique:
82Free Kick Accuracy:
63Curling:
69Header:
68Jump:
71Technique:
85Aggression:
86Mentality:
76Goalkeeper Skills:
50Team Work:
79Injury Tolerance:
BCondition:
6Weak Foot Accuracy:
5Weak Foot Frequency:
5Consistency:
6Growth type:
Late/PeakCARDS:P05 - Mazing Run
P15 - Free Roaming
SPECIAL ABILITIES: Dribbling - Tactical Dribble - Scoring
Attack/Defence Awareness Card: Attack Minded
INFO:Balmer was a centre forward or inside right. He spent his entire career at Liverpool, making 309 appearances from 1935 to 1952, scoring 110 goals. He was team captain from 1947 to 1950. A highly prolific scorer, extremely skillful and clever on the ball, Balmer was though criticised by the fans for his tendency to avoid physical contact and tackles no matter what, even if that costed him losing the ball. He once told in an interview that while he wasn’t a coward, he feared his opponent’s boots hitting his legs. In fact, he relied only on his skills that would make the crowd either amused or infuriated. Balmer was nothing like the old school centre forward who broke through hard defences by using physical strength. Nonetheless, he possessed pace, and was always ready to hit the ball to score. He was helpful in both orchestrating and finishing the offensive play, and he often scored with accurate and enough powerful shots from a diagonal position. Especially remembered for being the first ever Liverpool player to score three hat-tricks in consecutive matches, he did so against Portsmouth, Derby County and Arsenal. Against Portsmouth, he scored a penalty in the first half, and two diagonal shots from nearly the same position in nine minutes in the second half. In the game against Derby County, he actually scored four times in seventeen minutes, ─ three goals came in the second half ─ making the opposing defenders look particularly weak as he ran through them at his own will. Lastly, he scored a penalty in the first half against Arsenal before hitting the net two more times in seven minutes in the second half, once with a shot from 14 meters, and then with a shot from an angled position on the right.