Alisson upset with Liverpool teammates
Alisson upset with Liverpool teammates
Liverpool and their fans let us all down on Sunday but should every other club stick out their reserves and take the defeat?
Send your views to theeditor@football365.com
Liverpool signings being dissed by a Spurs fan
They’re just not very good. Szobozlai apart, the standard to cost ratio is embarrassing.
Dan Mallerman
Anfield turned to ash
The City game reaffirmed something I have been noticing for a good while – Liverpool’s atmosphere isn’t anything special anymore.
I am a Liverpool fan. During the Klopp reign I watched as Anfield roared us on to some incredible victories. I’ve seen the crowd completely turn a game, sometimes just because they’ve been enraged by a bad challenge and been woken from a sleepy game. Suddenly, previously struggling players feel a wave of emotion from the stands, surfing it as it washes the opposition away.
But if you go back further, there was a painful truth we didn’t want to accept. The Anfield crowd had gone through as much of a slump as the team during the nineties and noughties. As we became supporting cast to the stars of Man U, Arsenal and Chelsea, and the silverware became sporadic, so too did the performance of the crowd.
Jurgen said it himself during the early days, when the stadium emptied before the final whistle. They were non-believers. At some point we had become accepting of mediocrity and the inevitable bad results that follow. But Jurgen turned them into believers. His force of personality stirred the embers of a dying fire in the stands and over his glorious reign Anfield became a bonfire of emotion again.
The irony of Jurgen coming in and reigniting the fire of Anfield, is that with his success perhaps the final nail was drilled into the Anfield coffin. What happens when a team starts winning? There is the swell of support from around the country. Kids across England start supporting the best teams and with Liverpool playing chaotic and entertaining football, there would have been tens of thousands opting for them as ‘their’ team. This is all good and happens every generation.
But with those kids come the twenty-something accountant who never played football but suddenly gets into it through mates at work, the thirty something dad who wants a hobby to share with his son, the forty-something software engineer who recently emigrated from America and wants a sport to follow. The prawn-sandwich brigade essentially. And well-meaning they may be, but the fact is they trample all over that bonfire looking for their seat and sit politely waiting to be entertained.
With Arne taking over from Slot, a calm and sensible Dutchman took us to the title. It could have been the start of something special. But with Liverpool falling off a cliff, so too did the performance of Anfield. It now feels like every other stadium. When the teams is going great guns, when the matches are being won, everyone is happy and the atmosphere is good, but when the team is struggling, when they need the crowd to turn a game, they’ve gone. They are sitting disapprovingly. ‘This is not the entertaining romp we expected…’ They have become spoiled. Anything less than a win is greeted with a groan.
Special fans drag the performance out of a team or at least try. Special fans find a way to strike fear into hesitant opposition. But that City game showed me that the fire is gone.
We as a club have been cheated. Those titles Liverpool lost by a point were bought with ill-gotten gains. We had righteous fury and should have used it to make the whole game a horrible experience for their players. We might not have won. We might have even played a bad game, but the crowd should have given them both barrels for 90 minutes. What we got was whistles and boos for 15 minutes until they needed a coffee. Then it was sit quietly and hope Liverpool would score a ruddy good goal to send those naughty little City players back up whichever motorway connects northern cities.
I started angry at City and their players, I ended disappointed in Anfield and our fans…
Ed Ern
READ: Liverpool fans ‘bottled it’ as Man City leave neutrals ‘nauseated’
Why do Liverpool fans have to hold Man City to account?
Apparently, Liverpool supporters are now being criticised for their lack of hostility towards Manchester City at Anfield yesterday.
Forgive me, but why exactly is it the responsibility of Liverpool fans to carry the moral burden of English football’s biggest financial controversy?
For years, Liverpool supporters have been among the most vocal in questioning City’s financial conduct and the integrity of a competition in which they have been our principal rivals. And what has been the response from much of the wider football community? Indifference, ridicule, accusations of bitterness and the familiar instruction to stop moaning.
Yet now, apparently, we’re not angry enough.
Where is the sustained outrage from supporters of the other 18 Premier League clubs? Where is the collective pressure on the Premier League to bring this interminable process to a conclusion? Why does the responsibility for protesting City’s wrongdoing seem to fall disproportionately on the supporters of the club that has spent years competing against them?
Liverpool fans have been accused of obsession when they raise the subject, sour grapes when they question City’s achievements and now apathy when they don’t make enough noise about it.
It’s a rather remarkable set of expectations.
Manchester City’s 115 charges are not a Liverpool problem. They are an English football problem. If the allegations are ultimately proven, the implications extend far beyond Anfield, Liverpool’s lost opportunities or any particular title race. They go to the credibility of the entire competition.
Perhaps instead of asking why Liverpool supporters weren’t sufficiently aggressive yesterday, the more pertinent question is why so many other supporters have been so remarkably passive for so long.
We cannot simultaneously be told to stop banging on about Manchester City and then be criticised for not banging on loudly enough.
English football cannot outsource its conscience to the Kop.
Derek, Liverpool supporter
Make Man City owners leave
Liverpool fan here
Watched that yesterday
Worried that Satan is skating to work this morning and the dogs are talking to the cats… as I agree 100% with a Manchester United fan…
This sums up my feelings/emotions perfectly:
Ved Sen said:
“Liverpool v City game and City have just scored their 3rd goal. As a football fan first and foremost, I would be applauding a terrific goal. But I feel nothing.”
And it was that ‘feeling’ of nothing/hollowness/emptiness that surprised me.
I wasnt really sure how I would feel and maybe its only because we lost but it just all felt surreal.
2 of their goals were basically worldies but I had no appreciation of or them at all.
It just felt oddly tarnished in a way that I didn’t realise it would.
They may have cheated 20yrs ago for the best part of 10yrs but thats allowed them to be who they are now and that is an illegally put together bunch of cheat codes essentially.
It’s not the players’ fault.. Agreed but it is completely to their massive benefit.. IF they hadn’t cheated then almost or possibly all of those players would not be on that pitch today and they would simply not be the team they are.
We can never punish them sufficiently for the crimes they have committed. Not in footballing terms.
They have celebrated the wins – As a fan and player thats all you remember and wish for. You cannot take that away, So you cannot win.
They have cheated and got away with it. Even if you deduct them 1000pts or 25pts a season for 9 seasons…
The owners are to blame but the supporters have and will gain all the benefits for many years to come
(3 yrs climbing back to the prem is no problem – look at Rangers and Juve)
Just delete every title and piece of silverware from the records (No Winner) as it lasts forever in the history books.
Force the criminal owners into a sale.
F*** Andy Burnham and his worries that these criminals may leave .. they should be MADE to leave.
Al – LFC – Empty (Rio Ngumoha will be ringing JJ Gabriel if he doesn’t get some more game time)
Man City players are not innocent in this
As a later middle age football fan of a large number of years, this may just be point where the Premier League has just collapsed into a black hole of its own making. Now nothing can escape the filthy money singularity, not even the football on the pitch. As a relative neutral I’ve always looked forward to the big games, check out the soap opera, see some great football, engage in a bit of ‘bantz’ with people the next day, no matter the off the pitch nonsense and grubbiness.
That pantomime yesterday I couldn’t watch. I felt the fury from the Liverpool fans was short lived and spluttered out quickly when it should have been incandescent from start to finish. Most of all the Man City players, fans and manager acting like nothing happened at the end. It’s not fair. We let our football do the talking. Just repugnant the lot of it.
I’m not getting into the weeds of what the club did, far better journalists (NOT YouTubers or ex-players) have laid out exactly what happened and this information has been available for YEARS. Yes, it had not been ‘proven’ yet, but it was all pretty much out there for everyone to read if they wanted to and come to their own conclusions.
Which is why I have ZERO sympathy for the players, ex or current. If they had taken just a moment to think ‘I wonder why this club is charged with 115 offences?’ or ‘Do I want to be involved with owners that might have indulged in systematic rule breaking?’ would they have still signed?
Perhaps they would. Perhaps they are a morally vacuous flesh bag and could not give two poops about it all as long as they win things and get paid. A lot. By two or three different companies. I suppose then you would react as they did yesterday, like it’s all a good laugh.
Perhaps they were misled. Badly. By people they trust. In that case surely you should feel angry about the situation or some level of regret because now you play for a club that is tarnished forever by being cheats and you are spending the rest of this season at least getting pilloried then (potentially) relegated. Nobody cares about anything you achieve this season.
Perhaps they do feel that way but they are being ‘professional’. Just doing the job I am paid to do. Keeping my head down until it all blows over. Just following orders… again, not historically the best excuse for carrying on with something you know is wrong.
I’m hearing and reading a lot about it ‘not being the players fault’. Sorry, I call foul on that. They knew what they were getting into bed with and to have the ‘not me ‘Guv’ attitude or ‘siege mentality: everyone is against us’ mindset is utterly vomit inducing at this point.
Couple this with a bizarre Chelsea model of buy everyone worry about it later and an Arsenal that are potentially one of the most unlikeable group of players/manager I have ever come across (I was here for peak Fergie years and even I had grudging respect for them…) the top end of the Premier League is a swamp. Thank goodness Tottenham and United are at least providing a bit of comedy.
Funstar Andy
PS. Villa are starting to come together nicely after having our spine ripped out. Emery for President.
Man City are going to walk this… I think we are going to see City absolutely romp to the title this season as the majority of teams will chuck in the towel like Liverpool, almost saying ‘what’s the point we can’t compete against cheats’.
It’s like a get out for losing, which most teams will do regardless. Obviously it should have the opposite effect but I can’t see it.
The punishment cant come soon enough so we can just remove their results from this season.
Chris
Stop playing against them…
Just an idea….
Spoiler alert. As the general football fan in this country becomes increasingly agnostic (I suspect) to the game in the slow creeping wake of what will be a long tail to the city investigation, there are only 2 ways out of this malaise:
1. City grow a pair, confess and give their own fans a bit of pride back or
2. The PL grow an even bigger pair, come down hard on them in the only just way possible (full expulsion from all levels of football or at least a long term outright “ban” from the top echelon) and give their own game a bit more pride back.
However mystic Pete can tell you with confidence that neither of those will happen, so let’s stop pretending.
So what about this. What if each club (maybe starting with one with more balls than LFC?) for the remainder of the season play their reserves in the games against City? Go on, give the first team 2 extra weeks off in an increasingly packed schedule. But more importantly, the best way of showing their distain for City still having the right to play in this league.
City will run away with the league (they may anyway?!). But would a league title win like that really be any LESS meaningful that the ones they won in the period of cheating??!
Go on. I dare anyone to think of another credible, practical better solution
Pete, Newcastle
It’s what Johnnny would have wanted
So today is a rather glum day, football is truly into its Final Stage Capitalism era and we have no Johnny Nic to encourage us to the barricades.
Twice in 5 minutes this morning I heard BBC Radio 5 speaking of the Premier League as “product” and how the City issue this has damaged the global standing of the “product”. It made me feel sick to my core.
The thing is I love football, not just my team, but football. I come from an era of 80s kids whose wives and girlfriends even now know they can leave us alone with a football and we’ll still be there hours later. So many good times have started with a kick about and now we are left with “product”.
So what to do about city once the interminable quest for an appeal has truely ruined this season. This will sound drastic but I would love to see EFL agree to take a transfer embargoed City but on the grounds that the EPL is disbanded and a standard 4 league format all under the auspices of the FA is reinstated. That money generated is shared throughout, not as parachute payments but in equity of a the game we love. There is to be no EPL vote those clubs, one of which I have supported for 45 years, cannot be trusted. The age of the premier league ends. It is a failed organisation.
If clubs want to start as European Super League they can try but they do knowing they’ll never be allowed back without starting on the lowest rung. I would let LIV golfers back either.
It is time to stop bending, kneeling, and scraping to every dodgy global billionaire to lift our clubs or even worse our nations out of the malaise they created. Generations ago our forebears knew the monied were not our friends, it is time to remember that.
Paul (Here since 2000) Rhodes
Have some self-awareness, Liverpool fans
They really are nauseating. “You robbed a generation of supporters.”
The chutzpah from a fanbase which cost English teams 5 years of European football, 3 of which would’ve been contended by their nearest neighbours. I’d have minded less if the club themselves would’ve made that point, but the lack of self awareness is staggering.
Aidan, EFC, Hoxton
…You can talk about good versus evil, sponsored by money launderers vs account fudgers, who made the most noise during the George Best minute silence. But I embrace Chaos and that was objectively funny!
Drury practically crying when the 3rd goal went in, Neville demanding to not commentate on City games, Carragher being blissfully silent. Heck we even saw a Liverpool midfielder sent off for two bookable offences, wonders will never cease!
Did it mean too much?
EFCraig (witty comment here)
Just get on with it!
Am I the only one who doesn’t care if Man C cheated or not?
Everyone does it, they just got caught.
I know plenty of cheats, my mate cheats, he’s never ever paid for Sky & still somehow watches every game live on his sofa.
Of course I’d never dream of doing that.
Give City a £100 million fine & 5 years transfer ban & get on with the league.
Jas, Telford United!!
Steven Gerrard on Arsenal
Steven Gerrard on Arsenal