Supporting Liverpool today and the differences between embracing and implementing fan culture…
DOUBTER.
Believer.
What comes next?
Firstly, let’s cull the nonsense and dispel the usual tropes which emerge in this space:
- Liverpool have always had a global supporter base intent on catching a glimpse of the team and visiting Anfield whenever they can.
- Higher demand leads to more touting. This has always been present but with an increased stadium capacity, these issues can become more sinister.
- Liverpool’s atmosphere has never been a constant cacophony of sound and passion. It comes when it’s called in most cases. Argue amongst yourself whether you believe that’s still the case.
Wembley was weird. I’d played 120 minutes of football in the morning and was dead on my feet in the stadium. I could empathise with those in red who looked like they’d been on Hackney Marshes with me a few hours earlier.
They hadn’t, obviously. And with that throws up an issue which transmitted into the stands, being that Liverpool rightly turned up favourites without the usual energetic force supplied by some form of adversity and underdog narrative.
Conversely, this was the biggest occasion in modern Newcastle United history and rightly so. Imagine this fanbase if we hadn’t won a trophy for 30 years or more. Our end would be every bit as feral. I’d argue more.
Sometimes, it’s simply easier to accept your role. On Sunday, Liverpool were giants to be slain. They were the footballing equivalent of the royalty they jeered pre-game.
That is entitlement, yes. We love the League Cup. Last season, the final created its own underdog story and everyone bought in.
This season, it became our third final in this competition in four years. The other two both ending in wins. It became a familiar jaunt to Wembley however you got there. It becomes less special and unique as a result.
It was the second most important game of our week.
We can scoff at Manchester City and their supporter neutrality most of the time, but when you are successful you become expectant and, as this season is showing, you prioritise that success. You want the success on offer but know a much greater let off is on the cards.
Liverpool cannot be Newcastle in this situation because our club is simply playing with different priorities.
Jurgen Klopp’s infamous line of ‘doubters to believers’ was a call to action but it was also the creation of a timeline. A marker of who we were versus who we would go on to become.
It was powerful because it meant we could channel all that hunger into some form of meaning. We knew exactly at that moment that we were at the start of something. The bottom of the mountain looking up.
It looked magical.
As the wider discourse has entered the conversation this week, it reminds me constantly of what Liverpool is at its core.
A port city, yes. Entrenched deep in its identity as one with single mindedness and sheer stubbornness at times, absolutely.
But ultimately, Liverpool is never a place which wants to keep people out. It’s important to remember this.
Regardless of the financial benefits which come from increased hospitality around the city on matchday, it’s a place which demands you to be in awe of its beauty, quirks and inability to be unhelpful.
Liverpool wants you to have a good time. It wants to know where you’re from, what you’re drinking and what you think of it in its best light.
People who come to Anfield in their thousands season upon season deserve that experience because that’s what makes supporting the club so unique.
Embracing culture is important, but implementing such culture was so much easier with someone like Klopp.
The club rode on the coat tails of that journey. Arne Slot is rightly not adding that to his in-tray.
So, who does this responsibility now fall on? And what exactly needs to be done? These are near impossible questions to answer.
Liverpool have become a byproduct of recent success in that they expect, to a degree, to have regularly successful trips to Wembley. And that is totally fine.
It also means that with success becomes more interest and hunger to see a team in action. To live out dreams and bucket lists and this also should be allowed and catered for.
We’re now past the stage of believer. I’m not sure exactly how that is defined, but there are no big issues to resolve.
They have been around forever. They are dog whistles of who to blame but no solutions. They aren’t worth anyone’s energy.
Sunday was a bad showing from everyone, myself included.
In every sense, the next month will offer us some clarity on what we were playing for. It will all make sense very soon.
Buy Dan Morgan’s book ‘Jürgen Said To Me’ on Klopp, Liverpool and the remaking of a city…
