THE CURSE OF THE LIVERPOOL WAY “We need to get back to the basics,” said Brendan Rodgers, after the latest – and worst – setback of this setbackiest of early-seasons, a could-actually-have-been-worse 3-1 beating at Crystal Palace that left Liverpool 12th in the table. Back, then, to the basics, those immovable, inarguable foundations upon which the club’s historic success has been founded. The famous Liverpool Way. But what the devil is it? Some ways are really easy to define, like Olympic Way (a short pedestrian route linking Wembley Park tube station to the national stadium), My Way (a 1965 top-five smash by Frank Sinatra) and Ian Holloway (madcap soundbite generator occasionally employed by football clubs). But this way, no way. So the Fiver asked some experts to define it, or at least found places where experts had already defined it and then copied what they’d said. Each of the following, in the Fiver’s opinion, had a decent stab: Ronnie Whelan: “As a player [there were] boxes you had to tick at Anfield: good technique, a football brain, huge work ethic and a genuine heart. That was the formula. If that’s what people mean by the Liverpool Way, so be it.” Football historian David Goldblatt: “The Liverpool Way was a tradition of simple football, pass and move, defending and attacking collectively, continuity of staff and players, respecting player autonomy but insisting on solidarity. Possession was the first priority, the virtue of patience extolled.” A 2012-era Brendan Rodgers: “The way I want to play here is the Liverpool way. The history and tradition of this club has been about offensive football, attacking football – but always with discipline. The game will be based around what Liverpool are about, which is control, dominating games with the ball, working very hard when you haven’t got the ball and keeping the game as simple as possible.” Steven Gerrard: “We celebrated together and commiserated together. The Liverpool way. Liverpool’s family feel is essential to someone like me who works best in a strong, caring environment.” Alan Hansen: “I go along with the Liverpool way of thinking, that any goal is a bad goal and you’ve got to make the opposition do something special to get one.” Kenny Dalglish: “Gentle initiation helped the boys settle in, so it wasn’t too much of a culture shock when they were promoted from the reserves full-time. That was the Liverpool way, building for the future.” Kenny Dalglish again: “The Liverpool way was giving everything, that was what made Liverpool so formidable.” Still Kenny Dalglish: “That’s the Liverpool way, the passing-down of club traditions from one generation to the next.” More Kenny Dalglish: “Humility was an important part of the Liverpool way.” And Dalglish again: “The Liverpool way was keeping the game nice and simple, just tackling, passing and moving – win it, give it.” And, incredibly, Kenny Dalglish: “From the moment my family arrived from Glasgow we were very well looked after by Jack Ferguson at the Holiday Inn. While I was out training, Marina went down for tea and toast with the front-desk staff, who became friends. The chambermaid ended up as babysitter. That’s the Liverpool way, everybody so accommodating.” And so to today, when, with critics busily arching their backs, baring their teeth and hissing like angry tomcats, Rodgers set about redefining his Liverpool way: “We need to get back to the basics,” he said (as we’ve established) “of fighting and being aggressive. We have to get on with it and find ways of getting results. That’s what Liverpool is all about.” Rodgers seems to have made an important error here. As we now know, and Rodgers himself seemed to have grasped until just a couple of months ago, Liverpool is all about gentle initiation, hard work, collective thinking, humility, passing, moving, and winning most of your football matches. Fighting and being aggressive, meanwhile, are what Stoke City is all about. It’s disappointing for anyone to get this the wrong way round, least of all the Liverpool manager, and Rodgers evidently has much work to do before he’s back on track. We’ll know he’s finally getting there the moment he asks his chambermaid to babysit.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 10:58:16 +0000
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