“LIVERPOOL Football Club would like to thank you for your continued support.”
You’ve got to give it to the fella on the tannoy, he’s definitely got sarcasm nailed.
Another famous European Night under the lights at Anfield? Do me a fucking favour.
The power of Anfield? Only when it suits.
Dull, listless, not at the races, but despite the complacency in the stands at least the team did what they had to do, and thank fuck for that because the atmosphere was as flat as a witch’s tit.
Liverpool had a great opportunity to put on an exhibition of football tonight and the crowd to get into a team sore off the back of a 7-0 hammering, but for the Maribor fans you could have sworn it was a behind closed doors friendly.
Whether or not some thought mistakenly that tonight’s fixture was the return game of a two-legged tie, only god knows, but you’d be forgiven for thinking as if you were watching as a neutral.
Earlier in the week Jürgen Klopp made a thinly-veiled dig about the Anfield atmosphere and he’s bob on regardless of the fare served up so far this season, and the fingers that should rightly be pointed at the team, he had a point.
For the second time in a week an expectant, entitled Anfield crowd sat back and waited to be entertained, the complacency in the stands an embarrassment, one that permeated from The Kop, to the Main Stand, to the Kenny Dalglish (weird one typing that) and the Annie Road and ultimately onto the pitch.
It wasn’t so long ago that we swore we’d never take Champions League football for granted, but tonight was a nadir among an ever growing stack of evidence that says that the mysticism and legend of the Anfield crowd is dying on its arse.
Not that it’d be an acceptable excuse, but it’s hardly as if we’re good enough to be so arrogant either, how can we expect “heavy metal football” if all the amps have been turned off?
We’re famed for creating a cauldron of noise that frightens the life out of the opposition before a ball has been kicked, and now more than ever, given the current manager’s playing style, we need an atmosphere conducive to fast, intense, intimidating football as opposed to the lackadaisical, casual and disinterested fare served up for the majority of the season at Anfield so far.
The signs were there in the days leading up to the game, spares floating around like confetti and then even worse, paid-for seats left empty. No doubt those who couldn’t be arsed will be the first in the queue for the next glamour tie.
It took 36 minutes for The Kop to rouse itself from its slumber only to peter out as quickly as it started, only returning once Liverpool had taken the lead.
And then the last 10 minutes when the game was won the songbook came out, nice one for that lads, where was your voice when it mattered early doors?
It’s easy to criticise the team when they don’t turn up, but they aren’t the only ones who need to get their house in order.
It’s also too easy to look at whichever group of fans isn’t you, whether that’s local, out of town, whatever, we need to stop making excuses and pointing fingers it’s a collective malaise that needs correcting, and quick.
Recent Posts:
[rpfc_recent_posts_from_category meta=”true”]
Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda Photo
Anfield was terrible tonight.
Full of boring old moaners and people talking selfies and filming. Turned into Old Trafford.
I swear that the majority around me in the Upper Main Stand are only there to say they had been. Late for kick off missed 5 minutes either side of half time and left in the 80th minute. OK it was a repeat of Saturday and once again we were dire in the first half but this is our club and we are supposed to be fans so let’s behave like them.
I was in the Kop and largely surrounded by local males middle aged and older who barely made a sound. It kind of saps you of joy and you feel like a freak joining in with songs.
What an on-going pity.
If you chaps want to fly me across the pond for every game, I’ll be livelier than DT on Arsenal TV after a 1-0 loss to Brighton and hove.
Me too! :)
two people sat by me (elderly father and daughter in her 30s I think) and the only words exchanged in 90 minutes were “looks like it’s gonna be one of those games”…no getting behind the team, no other interactions, just that one sentence in 90 mins. Fucking hell!!
“It’s also too easy to look at whichever group of fans isn’t you, whether that’s local, out of town, whatever,” full disclosure, as a 29 year old Scouser currently living in London it’s an age thing. You need new blood, hungry for success in the stands. Half the time when I’m at Anfield I look around and it’s difficult to spot someone under the age of 50 (especially if it’s a big game). Even someone of my relatively young age is probably too old to provide the most vehement support imaginable (though I do try when I can get a ticket). But as a young lad, what chance have you got to even go the game? Even I am relying on flavours from my mate’s dad, or dad’s mates, or mates of a mate. I’m not saying I should have priority by any means, but there needs to be far more thought given to how the next generation is going to come in through the gates.
Take your point Andy, although being a matchgower for 35 years before moving to Australia, I have to disagree. Let’s get it straight the legend of Anfield often clouds the reality going back decades. The atmosphere has always been directly proportional to the sense of the occasion the opposition in town and whether it be latter/earlier stages of the competition, especially if it’s the knockout stages. The same goes for the intensity displayed on the pitch being responsible for the intensity in the ground.
Agree. No intensity and consistency on the field that results in zero trophies does have some effect in that the crowd no longer believes as Jurgen would like us to do so.
But without the intensity of the crowd or 12th man, it’s like the chicken or egg thing then.
I prefer the team and manager prove their worth these days. Those legendary days were matched by both loyal crowds and loyal teammates and managers who spoke with their actions more than anything.
Good game and a win always helps. However we’ve started missing penalties (at home in front of the Kop) now, some new stat pointed out by the commentators. Should the Kop keep singing praises for Milner?
Thank goodness Maribor repeated their impression of a pub team in the second half. Mane, Couts and Lallana can’t come in soon enough.
In any case let’s hope we make it through the next game. One game at time for me despite the Anfield Library atmosphere. I’ll take the win for now.
Guy sat next to me brought his iPad! That and what looked like a bag full of shopping, he may as well have been at home for how much he engaged in the game.
I would add, definitely post Kop days of ’94 onwards, and may have been the case with the Kop, with LFC also being triumphant in all comps along the way. What I do believe would boost the atmosphere of all grounds in the Prem. would be if they reduced player contracts proportionally to reduce the entrance fee by £20. How Ace would that be!! What a feel good factor taking money off the greedy bastards would provide, making going the game very affordable. It would equate to somewhere around £20 million divided across the squad (excl. young pros on lesser wages) with the Club also chipping in with a couple of mill.
This may sound like a daft question but would any of you call yourselves Liverpool supporters? If you consider yourself a supporter it’s worth looking up the term ‘support’ in a dictionary – ‘to hold up, assist or sustain’. Why is this definition important? Because at some point the role of a supporter has warped from someone who assists and sustains to someone who waits to be impressed and then reacts. I would argue those who wait to be impressed and then react aren’t technically supporters as they’re not assisting or sustaining the team for part of the game. A more appropriate term for these people would be ‘semi-supporters’ as it describes the partial nature of their support. Ultimately, if you consider yourself a Liverpool supporter, as the term is technically defined, you’d have to back the team from the first minute to the last. If you don’t want to do that I suppose you could call yourself a ‘fan’, something that reduces the temperature in an environment.
Supporter; paying your money supports the club, the team in return entertains them paid up supporters.
Stop typing rubbish.
Two points:
1. First memories supporting Liverpool begin about 2007/08 season. (Brutal time to remember starting to support the Reds, eh? 1 trophy since then and all that. Still wouldn’t trade it for anything.) The atmosphere has markedly and consistently declined since then. 07 08 09 I remember it being relatively rare to hear a poor atmosphere. Declined a bit over the next few years (obviously to a degree). 13/14 obviously got the juices back flowing but then everything was quick to go flat in 14/15 with Saurez leaving and the poor start and Rodgers losing the fans. Revitalized a bit under Jurgen for the big games, but has been quick to go collectively flat again it seems, needing to be first entertained. It’s just a really sad, steady decline that I’ve witnessed ancedotally by observing. I wish someone would have had empirical decibel measurements data over the last 10 years, and I’m absolutely sure the trend line would be down, even with the addition of more seats.
2. Related. Without getting into the larger ticket/atmosphere debate where, as Andy says it’s “too easy to look at whichever group of fans isn’t you, whether that’s local, out of town, whatever, we need to stop making excuses and pointing fingers it’s a collective malaise”… What were the reasons that the atmosphere was shit LAST NIGHT v. Maribor specifically, in people’s opinion. I don’t know, I wasn’t there, but what was the primary cause for last night being so dull? Would genuinely like to know. I feel that it is helpful to isolate why atmospheres on specific nights are bad, without making sweeping generalizations, and then compile the results of people’s opinions from those specific nights to begin to have data in aggregate from which you can draw insights and hopefully solutions.
Reasons were mainly 2 fold
1) a lot of people in the ground who only go to cup games and a lot who though passionate about lfc only go to games when there’s a lot of availability due to the nature of the game. Point I’m making is they don’t necessarily feel comfortable singing because they don’t know anyone around them. It’s never bothered me personally but I know the feeling as I’ve had it a few times at christenings singing hymns.
2) Andy called it a sense of entitlement and that’s as good a definition as any but people weren’t nervous about the match last night or even Saturday. If we were playing a better team in the second leg of the knock out stages people turn up with a mixture of nerves and excitement. Imagine the feeling you’ve got when you’re about to go for a night out with all your mates compared to how you feel on a Sunday afternoon when you know you’re gonna spend the day on the sofa. It’s a different energy. Right or wrong last night was a formality. I’ve always said you can feel the energy as soon as you walk into the ground. Sometimes there’s a cackle and sometimes it feels flat.
Put those 2 things together and you get last night.
One other point that has to be a factor. Regardless of what game it is at Anfield, looking at the people in there always reminds me of a Saturday afternoon in Runcorn shopping centre. It reminds me of the Eleanor Rigby ‘where do they all come from’.
How does it get fixed? What should the club do? Make the kop for local fan base only? Don’t water it down with Day trippers?
How about the team winning games (against top opposition as well), consistently, and winning a trophy match each season?
Spurs dispatched Real Madrid 3-1 like Rafa’s Reds used to do so. Big difference in how that would get the crowd to react.
Most importantly the crowd has also gotten used to mediocrity these past few years since the 2013/14 season. The belief isn’t there any more. Maybe when we win the EPL and CL titles something will change.
I Agree with most of the comments about last nights game . Not enough local lads can afford the match to many tourists now, they know nothing about the club ,they get on my nerves singing that 1 fcking song the fields of Anfield Rd. Half v half fcking scarves ,our ground is the biggest tourists attraction at weekends ,and for idiots taking photos I rest my case embarrassing. Thank god I seen the great times ,proper singing at both ends of the ground & great taking the piss out of each others fans ,doubt them days will ever come back . 1 of the best songs to Tommy Docerty . remember ,who’s up Mary Brown haha great days L.F.C.
Weird one last night. Actually thought pre match YWNA sounded good – not loud, but had a nice rhythm to it. Not sang at 100mph. But yeah think people took it for granted or couldn’t be arsed getting up for it.
There was a fella holding a baby near me in the upper main stand last night. A proper new born baby. With ear defenders on (not that they were needed). Never seen anything like it. Football and it’s fans have gone mad. It’s an outing now for middle class hipsters. Taking selfies all over the place, eating Doritos and dips in a little tray (I wanted to smash them up in the air so much), little tubes of Pringles, pizzas, even seen a lad with fish and chips! It was like being at the cinema. The problem is there are more people interested in witnessing the atmosphere, than there are to create it an have a go.
I am a season ticket holder n was at the match last night . Atmosphere was good in beginning but as match went on it died down . I agree it shldnt matter who we are playing against the atmosphere should be electric . unfortuanately i think those days have gone now unless we need to win a game obviously . Its not just Anfield but OT , Eithiad etc are the same !! We get noticed wben we are quiet because of out past for fantastic atmospheres were as other teams dont because were never known for it .
YNWA
We get noticed because we keep bringing up the past and the team and manager is often compared to the past as well, but the results on and off the pitch continue to drift afar from these comparisons.
Atmospheres like this make atmospheres like Roma (2002) and Chelsea (2005) more special.
In u1 in the £9 seats as usual for tonight
Some fella by me got up for a piss on 78 which everyone seemed to take as a sign that they can leave. By full time it was half empty.
The atmosphere is awful and has been for ages now, but it doesn’t help that the manager is constantly going on about it in the programme then the team look half arsed. I don’t mean last night but on several occasions this season. In fact, Arsenal was the only home game I’ve been to that was rocking, coincidentally we played the kind of football people expected when we got Klopp.
Anyway, up the reds.
Jon, did you attend any of the games during the 2013/14 season? How was the crowd reacting then? If it was unlike this last game, what made it different?
I ask because I am from the US and have been to a handful of away and home games, but missed out that season.
Fair play Sash, those games in the second half of the season were brilliant. Atmosphere comes in many guises. I think people forget that. There seems to be an assumption that singing is atmosphere. It’s not. Energy is atmosphere and flat is the opposite. Once the run started it became immense. Everton was where it all changed. I commented on here at the time that I often nod to people in the game but no more than that. That game we were all in the aisle in a group hug jumping up and and down in a far too passionate manner. Swansea was that up and down must win game where we won it 4-3. The atmosphere was good for that and I friggin missed the Arsenal 5-1 due to a family wedding in South Wales. The next home game was Sunderland in midweek and by then the coach welcoming had started. I wanted to mention this game particularly because we later had the great win over Spurs on a Sunday tea time – the most I’ve looked forward to a Sunday tea time game in years and the Man City game is now legendary. But Sunderland was weird. We’d been on a great run and winning was everything. I don’t think there was much singing but the atmosphere was electric. When we were 2-0 up everyone was enjoying it but they scored with 15 mins to go and started looking threatening. The singing stopped and nerves kicked in. It was a “I seen this game before” moment as we all thought the worst. My point is, the singing stopped in the last 15 and everyone was biting their nails. It was hard to watch the energy in the ground was unreal. It was anything but flat. On the final whistle every person in the ground let out the biggest release of emotion I’ve seen. Not quite on the level of Chelsea 05 but it was huge. So, I’m in absolutely no doubt the atmosphere will return once the games are even more important and that doesn’t necessarily mean singing. Dortmund is an obvious example. The bottom line is there are games you go to where we want to win 100% obviously but then there are the odd games where you can’t sleep for days in the run up to them. You wake up with that funny feeling in your stomach but the game is only 72 hours away. We’re all big game players now. Maybe it’s always been like that.
Hi Robin, thanks for the reply. Funny you mentioned the Sunderland game. I know what you mean by the last 15 minutes. I lost all my fingers by the end and needed stem cell regen. :)
Agree it can go from match to match depending on the opposition and stakes. I hope we put up a fight against West Ham returning to Wembley. The win going into the break will be needed just as much as some luck in our key players coming back to the fold.
Let’s hope the crowd get something cheer about this weekend.
Up the Reds!!!
Lack lustre at moment a rollercoater of emotions.We cant compete with the other 5 big teams.We cannot live in the past either.FSG need to get their house in order to back us financially to keep with the others.Other than that i cant see us winning anything for years.
I think klop should wake up and count himself among the big boys. This guy lack confidence to me. He has to do a lot of work on Mario or find a good replacement.
Klop should not be experimenting when the season has commence, he should have experimented during the pre season.
Talking about the quietness at An field, hmmm, when ur team get beaten by city and spurs 5-0, and 4-1 makes u sad every time u think about it and u don’t know what’s coming next. The team is so unpredictable.
The atmosphere was particularly poor in the first half but then so was the football being served up by both teams. Watching the ball being circulated around the backs to Henderson back to backs left to right right left is the epitome of boring. We played more forward passes in the first 5 minutes of the second half than in the whole of the first half. Change aimless recycling of the ball watching players shuffle left to right , right to left….and you change everything including the participation of the crowd. Of the 24 people i stand/sit on the Kop with at every home game i recognised about 6 of them as true Kopites. That has to be a problem.
I was in the upper Main Stand, more towards the Kop end, last night. Although I don’t have the bravery to try and start a song myself, whenever I heard one starting in the Kop or elsewhere in the Main I joined in, but had to give up fairly quickly because literally everyone within about 10 rows was silent and motionless, and I felt like a knob singing on my own. For what it’s worth I am a Scouser, but locals were just as bad as out-of-towners or wools, and there were plenty of young people (albeit in their 20s, not teenagers). As someone commented above, when you aren’t going week in week out, and sitting wherever you can get a seat, particularly if you go alone as I did last night, you don’t know anyone around you, which makes you more self-conscious. Having said that, I ended up semi-shouting random supportive comments like a madman, just to break the silence (and also justify getting on my high horse about other people not making any effort).
I think last night people were not that arsed about Maribor, and felt entitled to expect us to just blow them away, so couldn’t be bothered to engage until we were comfortably in front. But regardless of the standard of the opposition, anything in the Champions League should be a ‘glamour’ tie and I don’t understand the lack of enthusiasm.
until there is a pay on the day, rail seating at affordable prices in at least 2 areas of the ground (annie rd and the kop) you are not going to get new songs banter etc
(yes we got in late upper main for last night but stayed throughout and were fairly vocal for old farts (but we’d never have been able to afford to go if were in our teens, and tbh maybe wouldn’t have bothered, if we’d had to sit (which nowadays i do rather like)
we used to get to the Kop 2 hrs before kickoff in the day to ensure getting in before kick off– loads of songs “Rangers-Celtic” etc etc we are loyal supporters, fanatics everyone..
nowadays we clap ;)
bring in the youngsters
Was there last night full of tourists . Loads leaving at half time its a joke. Liverpool football club should be for Merseyside people first not irish cockneys foreigners. No atmosphere no passion we are watching the end of a once great team
If we can’t get tickets for Anfield, maybe we should all rock up for the under 23s? I went to the away match against the scum, and (for a Mon. night) was great fun. Lots of Dads & lads like it should be, and our team is TOP OF THE LEAGUE. It’s good seeing the youngsters (and Danny Ings) and wondering who should get a chance with the 1st team.
Ive accepeted its gone forever,its time we all accept it and just enjoy the odd rarity of a big game atmosphere once every blue moon.
its alright,am back in jan,i will make some noise,and am 66,hahahahaaha.spot the scouser,sounds fun
Me and my son were lower main stand last night. we always leave horse after singing so much. Last night we didn’t sing, it was dead. I said to my son this is the worse CL Ever for atmosphere. It was absolutely diabolical. As someone else mentioned you feel a bit of a tool singing on your own. But I do think because everyone knew we were going to win it had no intensity.. bloody awful..
It did sound quiet on the television. I was in the Upper Main on Saturday, and it was quiet then too. I don’t have a huge problem with quietness, but do with active negativity. But I don’t think we want constant noise like there was at Spartak, regardless of how the team is doing. We should encourage when it’s gone flat, and respond when they get stuck in or get going. But it is a 2 way thing.
Take the point about the atmosphere, was shit…fans taking CL for granted maybe ye, but the club an some of them players are taking the fans for granted aswell. When the glaring issues in the team are not addressed window after window, don’t blame the fans when they start to get fed up with seeing the same mistakes game after game. It wears you down. Then you see the same lack of responsibility for setting a tempo that we expect from a Klopp team…without lalanna/mane to set the pace and get things moving the rest of them are happy to just go through the motions. What happened to fast starts and flying out the traps? Can’t even remember last time one of our players put in a proper rattler of a tackle to show some authority? Maybe Flanno on Sterling two seasons ago? Crowd loved it and Sterling disappeared at half time. It’s a two way thing, show some fight and passion and you’ll get it back in spades.
But, that being said, the club could defo do with getting some local kids into the stands!
I know from my own experience that there are likely, many middle aged blokes, who happen upon the very occasional ticket. We no longer know the songs, and don’t have a gang of mates to go with and have a few beers before the game. So we end up sitting there, just watching, wanting to get involved, but no longer knowing how.
Safe standing would definitely make it easier.
Actually a bit harsh on Salah that last post, out of everyone last few weeks, he’s been the only one who can hold his head up for effort
Well guys I’m one of what one might call plastic fans. I’ve been a supporter since 1974 and went to this Maribor game bringing my 3 kids from Denmark . I dont know all the lyrics , 2-3 songs maybe , but I’m there and I clap,shout and talk to my kids bout the game ..and yes 1 half wasnt good..
So bringing “kids” of 13,18 and 21 is my contribution to the future and doing as much noise as I can when I’m at Anfield .. I did take a selfie this time and yes I’m proud og having been there that night and do tell folks now that I’m home ..
But I still consider myself a real fan , and I do hate when you try to categorize real/plastic and so on fans…We are all fans in the best way possible , and we are all real fans…See you next time in my Mekka – Anfield.