With Liverpool struggling, the club’s problems have been compounded this season by a lack of connection to the supporters.
How quickly things can change.
Liverpool have gone from building from a position of strength to a season in which weaknesses have been all too clear and competing with the best teams, both domestically and in Europe, has been a struggle.
This isn’t limited to obvious factors like player quality, squad depth or recruitment decisions, even though they are part of it.
Regardless of personnel, regardless of results, something has changed this season as the team lack the vigour and ideas they once had to compete against any opponent. They lack identity, on the pitch and off it.
The recent Champions League exit at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain was an example of these issues.
A drifting identity
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, April 11, 2026: Liverpool supporters' banner "You'll Never Walk Alone", the only banner on the Spion Kop as supporters withdraw their flags and banners as a protest against ticket price rises, seen before the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Fulham FC at Anfield. Liverpool won 2-0. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
PSG look like Liverpool once did, a combination of intensity and quality. Ruthless on the counter-attack when needed, but also able to hold possession against a weaker team and do something with it.
Liverpool are now that weaker team, and that they have dropped to this level so quickly shows how fine the margins are at this level.
Maintaining a club’s identity and culture is also a delicate operation in the modern game and is linked to on-pitch performance.
While some of the biggest clubs in the world manage to retain some links to their long-held identity, to their locality and to the supporter base around the world that embraces that, there is a worrying drift away from this at many, Liverpool included.
Another impressive side in this season’s Champions League, Bayern Munich, seem to manage this well, in no small part due to German football’s 50+1 rule, but the drift can be seen even there and fans have to constantly be on their guard to fight back when needed.
This drift has certainly been seen at Liverpool this season.
Steve McManaman mentioned something similar happening at Bayern’s recent Champions League opponents, Real Madrid, in that a team known for its leaders on the pitch and tenacity, alongside its Galacticos, are slowly losing the gritty part of their identity.
Such issues will resonate with fans of many other clubs. Each has its own identity and at the biggest clubs this is often born of local culture with international ingredients and a global outlook, especially in a port city such as Liverpool.
It includes an expectation of the players and how they should act once they are representing these clubs.
Being physically disconnected from the players
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Tuesday, April 14, 2026: Liverpool's Dominik Szoboszlai arrives before the UEFA Champions League Quarter-Final 2nd Leg match between Liverpool FC and Paris Saint-Germain FC at Anfield. (Photo by UEFA)
John Gibbons summed this up well recently on The Anfield Wrap. One of the points raised was about players being physically disconnected from the city and as a result, mentally too.
The club “feels like it just comes into town once every two weeks to play and then f***s off again,” Gibbons said.
This is linked to the way football has turned into a business and the idea that employees turn up for the wages then go home, but football clubs need to be something more.
Where players live may seem like only a small issue, and it’s not the first time Liverpool players have lived out of town, but everything adds up.
Just as the best way to learn a language is to live in the place where it is spoken, you can only truly understand the culture of a city and its football clubs by spending time in it.
It is no wonder the players sometimes seem detached, and this means that when there is a dip in performances, even when there is not a dip in effort, they are afforded less leeway because there is no connection between them and the fans.
Where are this team’s characters?
SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND - Sunday, May 28, 2023: Liverpool's Roberto Firmino is pushed to the travelling supporters by Mohamed Salah (L) after playing his final game for the club during the FA Premier League match between Southampton FC and Liverpool FC at St Mary's Stadium. The game ended in a 4-4 draw. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
There are no characters. Where is this team’s Roberto Firmino? Even Darwin Nunez who, while flawed, had something of a cult following due to his connection with the fans.
There are no cult icons in this team and the players who might have been, like Federico Chiesa and Wataru Endo, never play.
For the most part, there is no questioning the players’ effort on a professional level, but there are little things here and there that affect the aforementioned fine margins and delicate balance.
The clearly great Florian Wirtz currently lacks the traits of someone like Sadio Mane or Andy Robertson and the desperation to win many of those under Klopp seemed to possess.
Mane, a player who sent hundreds of thousands of pounds back home to Senegal, has been replaced by Cody Gakpo, a landlord.
DORTMUND, GERMANY - Wednesday, July 10, 2024: Netherlands' Cody Gakpo lines-up before the UEFA Euro 2024 Semi-Final match between Netherlands and England at the Westfalenstadion. England won 2-1. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Even Liverpool’s best player this season, Dominik Szoboszlai, praised highly by fans and even compared to Steven Gerrard at one point, showed with some of his recent actions – he shrugged at the travelling supporters following the embarrassing defeat to Man City – that he doesn’t get those supporters in return.
It was also symbolic that Szoboszlai’s actions, which summed up the disconnect between players and fans, were against City, the team with which Liverpool once went toe-to-toe.
It suddenly seems like there is a big gulf between the current Liverpool and the one that took part in those match-ups.
Even if it might be unrealistic to expect the subsequent rebuild under Slot to live up to the team that preceded it, as it was arguably the greatest side in Liverpool history, it is reasonable to at least expect the identity instilled by Klopp, the players and staff involved during those years to remain.
Retaining that spirit should have been the priority with everything else built around that, but the recruitment, though admirable on paper as the claims of Liverpool ‘winning the transfer window’ suggested, forgot about the continuation of culture.
This building this culture was one of Klopp’s biggest achievements and the reason he will go down in history as a Shankly-like figure at the club.
Rising ticket prices don’t help either
The recent announcement of a rise in ticket prices only sent things further in the wrong direction and once again showed a lack of understanding of a football club by those in charge.
It might be suggested that the complaints about club culture are only coming about because of the poor performances, but it’s more likely that the poor performances exist on the back of this loss of culture, and raising ticket prices only makes this worse.
You don’t want to have to rely on a Klopp-like figure coming in again to turn things around, as one likely doesn’t exist. Instead, everything needs to work together to retain the culture built, which is linked to the supporters and the city.
Liverpool’s latest loss to PSG on Tuesday night was one of the better games this season; the players gave everything, the ground was in full voice and Slot was animated on the touchline.
The effort was not in doubt, but something is still missing. Sadly, there are now fewer people working in top-level football who know what this something is.