It seems like only a few days ago that thousands of Liverpool fans suffered through the debacle outside the Champions League Final. But tomorrow Liverpool and Manchester City will square off in Leicester for the Community Shield. The Community Shield is a glorified exhibition match that annually pits the league champion (Manchester City) against the winner of the FA Cup (Liverpool). The match traditionally caps off the preseason. Then, just seven days after that, the Premier League season kicks off for real when the Reds travel to newly-promoted Fulham.
Are you ready for some football?
Maybe you are, and maybe you’re not. And maybe I can help.
Some of you dear readers are relatively new to the sport and to Liverpool Football Club. Some of you may be dipping your toes in the water, trying to decide whether to begin watching this sport in earnest. Others may have decided to watch, but you haven’t yet picked a club to follow. Dear readers, for all of you, I’ve decided to create a primer – a guide to being a Liverpool fan.
Why? Because I like you.
And because you will enjoy the game more if you know a bit more about the history, culture, manager, tactics, rivals, and the players you’re watching.
It’s too much to lay out in just one piece, so I’ll break it up into four parts: Part One, which you’re currently reading, provides some highlights and milestones from Liverpool Football Club’s storied history, including the development of LFC’s intriguing, politically-charged fan culture. In Part Two we’ll take a look at the irrepressible current Liverpool manager – Jürgen Klopp, the man who restored former glory after the club had suffered a 30-year drought without a league title. In Part Three you’ll indulge me while I drone on about football tactics and statistics. Just wait – you’ll love it. Really you will. Finally, in Part Four we’ll introduce you to the current team, talk a bit about LFC’s rivals, and preview the coming season. If everything goes to plan, we’ll get there before the season starts in earnest on Saturday, August 6.
If you make it through the whole thing, I promise that what you learn will make your upcoming journey as a new Liverpool fan richer and more meaningful.
Ready? Let’s get historical.
Part I: Liverpool FC History and Culture
1892-1959. Beginnings – Taking Anfield Away from the Bitter Blues
Our story begins with hometown rivals, Everton. Yes, dear readers, Liverpool Football Club sprang to life at the expense of Everton. You could not make this up.
Everton Football Club was born in 1878, and won their first league championship in the 1890-91 season. Everton was a founding member of the Football League in 1888.
From 1884 until 1892, Everton played at Anfield, which held approximately 20,000 spectators at the time. Everton leased the stadium for a small fee. But in 1892, negotiations over Everton’s purchase of Anfield snagged. Everton board member John Houlding wanted the club to buy land he owned adjacent to the stadium on Anfield Road. But the Everton board thought Houlding was attempting to make a profit at the club’s expense. Because Houlding was close with Anfield owner John Orrell, the dispute led to Everton abandoning Anfield and instead building a new stadium nearby. Goodison Park has been Everton’s home ever since.
Meanwhile, following Goulding’s split with Everton, he decided to form a new club that would take up Everton’s former residence at Anfield. Thus, on March 15, 1892 Liverpool Football Club was born, fittingly emerging out of a dispute with its pungently bitter Evertonian rivals. Today, roughly half of the locals support Liverpool, and half support the Blues. Worldwide, millions support Liverpool and handfuls support Everton. This fact, along with a zillion others, makes Everton supporters angry and bitter about their hometown rivals. Famously, Everton fans take more joy from watching Liverpool lose than they do watching their own team win. Apparently, these folks can hold quite the grudge.
Over the next 67 years, Liverpool Football Club would go through a variety of ups and downs. They picked up league titles in 1901 and 1906, but were relegated to the second division in-between.
What’s the Deal with Promotion and Relegation?
Here I’ll insert a parenthetical note about “promotion” and “relegation” for the newbies. Almost from the beginning, English professional football consisted of a hierarchy of three or four leagues, each composed of approximately 20 teams. Confusingly, these three to four leagues are collectively referred to as “the Football League.”
Within the Football League, the “First Division” (which is now known as the Premier League) was the “top-flight,” consisting of the best teams in the land. The next-best group formed the “Second Division,” (now called the “Championship”), and the third tier was the Third Division (now called “League One”). Today, the Football League includes a fourth tier, called League Two.
Now that you understand the hierarchical structure, let’s get to the cool part – promotion and relegation. Each season, the bottom three teams in each of the leagues are relegated. This means those teams are kicked out of the league for the following season, and they will instead play in the next lower division (and teams relegated from League Two are kicked out of the Football League entirely). Conversely, three teams will get promoted to the next division up (except, of course, in the Premier League, because no higher league exists). The three promoted teams will be the two teams who finish highest in the standings, plus the winner of a four-team playoff among the teams who finish in third through sixth place.
Because there is a crazy amount of television money that comes with having your club play in the Premier League, the stakes for promotion from the Championship to the Premier League are ridiculously high. Indeed, the Championship playoff final is often referred to as the “richest football game in the world.” The winner gets promoted to the Premier League, which will mean an increase in revenue of at least £135 million over the next three seasons. This means that, financially, more is at stake in the Championship playoff final than in the Champions League final, which is effectively the Super Bowl of European football.
Promotion and relegation provide a ton of excitement for fans in the second half of the season. Almost every game remains meaningful, even though only two or three teams typically remain in the hunt for the league title. This is a very fun aspect of watching English football.
Now, back to our regularly-scheduled programming.
1954 to 1959: Liverpool Slide into the Second Division
From 1905 to 1954 Liverpool spent 50 uninterrupted seasons in the first division, while winning three titles. But, the club spent most of this time, which spanned two world wars, mired in mediocrity. In 1954, Liverpool finally fell to the Second Division, where they foundered for several years.
But swings and roundabouts – this downturn in LFC’s history ultimately led to one of the most important, positive events in the club’s history: the hiring of manager Bill Shankly in 1959.
1959 to 1974: Bill Shankly Transforms the Club and Its Culture
With the hiring of Bill Shankly, Liverpool F.C. began its transformation from a mediocre English football club into a club that dominated English and European football throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Shankly eventually brought huge success to the team on the pitch, first dragging them out of the Second Division by 1962, then leading the Reds to multiple titles in both the league and FA Cup in the ‘60s and early ‘70s, along with winning one trophy in European competition.
But Shankly’s most lasting legacy was his development of an intense relationship with the fans of Liverpool Football Club, which in turn deepened the fans’ commitment and bond to the club:
Liverpool is not only a club. It’s an institution. And my aim was to bring the people close to the club and the team and for them to be accepted part of it. The effect was that wives brought their late husband’s ashes to Anfield and scattered them on the pitch after saying a little prayer. I said to them: ‘In you come, you’re welcome’, and they trotted in by the dozen. One young boy got killed at his work and a bus load of 50 people came to Anfield one Sunday to scatter his ashes at the Kop end. So people not only support Liverpool when they’re alive. They support them when they are dead. This is the true story of Liverpool. This is possibly why Liverpool are so great. There is no hypocrisy about it. It is sheer honesty.
Bill Shankly, who later had his own ashes scattered over the Anfield pitch.
Shankly also tapped into the psychology of Liverpool as a city. Liverpool is a working-class town, which had been one of Europe’s key ports through much of the 19th century, but had gradually gone through economic decline through the mid-20th century, in part due to nearby Manchester opening a ship canal in 1894. Unemployment levels rose across the Liverpool metro area throughout this time. Unsurprisingly, as the people of Liverpool endured severe economic hardship, their political views moved farther and farther left. Today, Liverpool remains a bastion of far left politics in a nation run by moderates and conservatives.
Politically, Shankly fit right in.
I believe the only way to live and to be truly successful is by collective effort, with everyone working for each other, everyone helping each other, and everyone having a share of the rewards at the end of the day.
That might be asking a lot, but it’s the way I see football and the way I see life.
Shankly took every opportunity to thank the club’s supporters, and he made sure that his players did the same. This humility and graciousness, coupled with Shankly’s charismatic and dynamic speaking style, not only bonded Shankly with the fanbase and city of Liverpool, but it made him a club legend. On the pitch, the club would win many more trophies under Shankly’s successor, Bob Paisley. But Shankly built the platform from which Paisley’s teams launched, and Shankly created the heartfelt connection between the club and its supporters, which persists through today.
Club Anthem “You’ll Never Walk Alone” Captures Shankly’s Collectivist Spirit
In 1963 Anfield saw a tangible reflection of the fans’ embrace of Shankly’s collectivist spirit, when local band Gerry and the Pacemakers released a cover of the Rodgers and Hammerstein song “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from Carousel. The lyrics and tune melodramatically capture the “we’re all in this together” vibe:
When you walk through the storm
Hold your head up high.
And don’t be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
There’s a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of the lark
Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the snow
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you’ll never walk alone
Initially, the song was one of several that would be played over the PA system (Tannoy) that season before the match, and quickly became so popular with the fans that it became the club’s anthem. Later, the club adopted “You’ll Never Walk Alone” as its official motto, which it incorporated into the LFC “badge” (coat-of-arms). 
For many years, Liverpool fans have sung “You’ll Never Walk Alone” just before kickoff of every home match. Supporters also break into the song during the closing minutes of home matches that Liverpool is winning.
Over recent decades, Liverpool fans have also notoriously launched into “You’ll Never Walk Alone” during the British national anthem, “God Save the Queen.” This has typically happened when Liverpool has played in cup final matches at Wembley, the national football stadium, where the national anthem is usually played (and sung) before the match. In addition to singing YNWA over “God Save the Queen,” Liverpool fans have also routinely booed during the playing of the national anthem. This behavior reflects the common sentiment among Liverpool residents that they are outsiders in their own country – discarded by national politicians, including Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, as dispensable. Indeed, in the early 1980s Thatcher’s government famously determined “not to overcommit scarce resources to Liverpool,” which was regarded as a lost cause due to economic blight.
1974 to 1983: The Reds dominate English and European football under Bob Paisley
When Shankly retired in 1974, the club could have turned to a prominent, experienced outsider to take over. But Shankly himself understood that the best way to maintain and develop the team and the culture was to promote a leader who had already been with the team for the whole journey. Shankly hand-picked his successor, Bob Paisley, who had been Shankly’s top assistant coach from the time Shankly arrived at Liverpool in 1959.
In sharp contrast to his charismatic predecessor, Paisley was a quiet, introverted man. By all accounts, upon Shankly’s retirement, Paisley simply continued to implement the methods and approach that Shankly and his staff had previously created. This uncomplicated approach yielded incredible success. During his nine seasons as manager, Paisley’s team won six league titles, three League Cups (along with the FA Cup, the League Cup is one of two domestic tournaments played in England, and is a separate competition from the league matches), and three European Cups crowning Liverpool as the best team in all of Europe.
Paisley’s teams featured many all-time Liverpool greats – most notably all-time scoring leader Ian Rush, and winger Kenneth “King Kenny” Dalglish, who is widely considered one of the two best players in Liverpool’s history (along with Steven Gerrard, whose career followed Dalglish by about 20 years). Dalglish went on to manage Liverpool on two separate occasions – first as a player-manager in the twilight of his career in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and then again from 2011 to 2012. In Dalglish’s first stint as player-manager in the 1980s, Liverpool won three league titles and two FA Cups.
1985 to 1989: Two Stadium Disasters
As I have written elsewhere, the last half of the 1980s was a dark time in Liverpool history, marred by two stadium disasters within four years. With apologies to those of you who read this the first time around, I am repeating my description of that history below.
Violence by Liverpool Hooligans Led to 39 Deaths in the 1985 Heysel Stadium Tragedy
On May 29, 1985, the European Cup Final featuring Liverpool against Italian club Juventus was held at Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium.
About an hour before kickoff, inside the stadium a group of drunken Liverpool supporters repeatedly charged a flimsy fence that separated them from a section of Juventus supporters. At the time, most sections of European football stadiums did not have seats. Instead, each section was a “terrace,” where the fans stood throughout the match, with only a bar to separate the rows.
The absence of seats at Heysel helped the large group of Liverpool fans build momentum with a running start toward the adjacent section of Juventus fans. The fence collapsed, and the Liverpool fans pressed on, intending to beat the shit out of their Italian counterparts. The Juventus fans retreated in a panic.
Unfortunately, in 1985 the aging, decrepit Heysel Stadium was literally crumbling. When the Juventus fans ran away from their Liverpudlian attackers, they ran toward a concrete wall. Some of those fans were crushed by other fans. Then the crumbling wall collapsed, trapping and killing additional people.
Thirty-eight people died that day before the match ever started. Six hundred more were injured, and a 39th victim died weeks later.
Shockingly, UEFA decided that the match would proceed anyway. Juventus won 1-0, defeating a Liverpool squad that had won the European Cup in 1977, 1978, 1981, and just a year earlier in 1984.
After the event, 25 Liverpool fans were identified based on careful review of video evidence. Police arrested them in Liverpool and surrounding areas, and they were extradited to Belgium for trial. As Gareth Roberts wrote for The Anfield Wrap, “The youngest of the number was 18, the oldest 29. Their jobs ranged from painter, rail guard and labourer, to miner, electrician, carpenter and greengrocer’s assistant.”
Fourteen of the extradited fans were found guilty of voluntary manslaughter after a five month trial. The head of the Brussels police force in charge at the event, along with the head of the Belgian football association, were also convicted of “regrettable negligence” with respect to the organization and security at the stadium. Those officials received six-month suspended sentences. Seven of the Liverpool fans were sentenced to three-year prison terms, and seven received three-year suspended sentences.
Two days after the event UEFA announced that English clubs were banned from all European competition indefinitely. UEFA upheld that ban for five years. Fans of other English teams that would have otherwise been eligible to compete in Europe from 1985 to 1990 thus felt that they had been victimized by Liverpool and its fans. This tribalistic sentiment lingers among certain opposition fans, who to this day sometimes sing about Liverpool as “murderers.”
Without doubt, Liverpool fans earned a black reputation that day in Belgium. Four years later, they would again be involved in another stadium disaster. This time, Liverpool fans did nothing wrong. But they shouldered the blame anyway.
The 1989 Hillsborough Stadium Disaster: Trauma Twice Over
On April 15, 1989, Liverpool was scheduled to play Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup semifinal match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England.
As occurred in Paris little more than a week ago, at Hillsborough anxious crowds waited for hours to enter the stadium. Also as in Paris, police, football association officials, and stadium authorities lacked an adequate plan to deal with the crowds.
Unlike Paris, the Hillsborough crowd control problem ended in disaster.
To thin out the crowd, the South Yorkshire Police chose to open a gate that led only to two enclosed “pens,” or terraced sections of the stadium. As the crowd pushed forward into those unseated terraces, people at the front were pushed into a strong chain link fence, which effectively prevented any release of the pressure coming from the incoming push of fans. The people entering the stadium were unaware of the problems at the fence. Many in the crowd were crushed and suffocated. Ninety-four people died that day; another died days later, and one in 1993. The 97th victim died in 2021, after living for 32 years with irreversible brain damage from Hillsborough.
The survivors from that Hillsborough incident included the people who went to the match but also came home. They included the family, friends, and loved ones of the dead. They included the manager and players, and everyone else at the football club. And they included the Liverpool fanbase writ large.
Of course, those survivors were all traumatized by the events at the Stadium and the loss of their loved ones. Under normal circumstances, they could have grieved and recovered from that trauma as well as survivors can ever recover from such loss. But in addition to grieving those losses, in the aftermath of Hillsborough the survivors also had to deal with a second trauma, which has gone on for decades — the trauma of being wrongfully blamed for the tragedy that killed their loved ones.
As Wikipedia describes, “In the following days and weeks, South Yorkshire Police (SYP) fed the press false stories suggesting that hooliganism and drunkenness by Liverpool supporters had caused the disaster. Blaming Liverpool fans persisted even after the Taylor Report of 1990, which found that the main cause was a failure of crowd control by SYP.”
Spurred in part by the shadow of the Heysel disaster, together with the false police reports and a general cultural obsession with hooliganism, media outlets enthusiastically embraced and embellished the narrative that Liverpool fans were at fault. Some newspapers invented stories that surviving fans had robbed the dead bodies, and all of the media reported that the crush occurred because of widespread drunkenness. News stories concluded that Liverpool fans were “drunk and violent and their actions were vile”, that fans assaulted police and rescue workers at the scene, including “urinating on brave cops.”
None of this was true. But it has taken decades of relentless work by the survivors to bring the truth to light.
The initial official investigation took place in 1990, led by Lord Justice Taylor. Taylor issued a report that concluded that “the main reason for the disaster was the failure of police control.” That report also concluded that most fans were not drunk, or even affected by alcohol.
As we have seen happen recently in Paris, the South Yorkshire Police also blamed fans for trying to enter the stadium without tickets, or with forged tickets. The Taylor Report also rejected that allegation.
Meanwhile the initial inquests by the South Yorkshire coroner reached the controversial conclusion in 1991 that the victims suffered “accidental death,” which effectively insulated the police and stadium officials from prosecution.
Despite the findings of the Taylor Report, widespread public opinion regarding Hillsborough across much of England would continue to blame Liverpool fans for decades to come. Fans attending Liverpool matches continue to this day to endure songs from opposing fans about Hillsborough, including refernces to Liverpool fans as “murderers,” and chants indicating that “the [newspaper] Sun was right.”
In 2012, the Hillsborough Independent Panel Finally Laid the Lies to Rest (for Most People)
After 20 years of pressure from the Hillsborough Family Support Group, in 2009 the British government formed the Hillsborough Independent Panel to review documents from the police and other authorities that had never been made public, to investigate the disaster and its aftermath, and to issue a report. The Panel had nine members, and was chaired by the Bishop of Liverpool. Its members included a human rights lawyer, an investigative journalist, a medical officer in the Department of Health, a former Deputy Chief Constable, a criminologist, a broadcaster, and a former executive of the National Archives.
The Hillsborough Independent Panel worked for three years. In September 2012, the Panel issued a 389-page report with findings. Most importantly, the Panel concluded that no Liverpool fans were responsible in any way for the disaster, and that the main cause was lack of police crowd control. The Panel also found that the South Yorkshire Police had altered 164 witness statements, and that certain Members of Parliament had helped the police spread lies through the media.
After the Panel’s report, Prime Minister David Cameron apologized publicly in Parliament for the Government’s role in the cover-up. By December 2012, a court quashed the results of the 1991 inquest, and a second coroner’s inquest was opened In April 2016, a jury in those second inquests returned a verdict that all 96 of the deaths were the result of “unlawful killing.” However, subsequent efforts to prosecute the police and other officials have generally resulted in acquittals or dismissals.
The Hillsborough Experience Is Deeply Entrenched As Part of Liverpool Fan Culture
One cannot be a serious fan of Liverpool Football Club without understanding and appreciating the tragedy and struggle for justice around Hillsborough.
Since 1989, Liverpool Football Club and its supporters have deeply committed to providing “Justice for the 97.”
The club hosted a memorial service at Anfield every year on the anniversary of the tragedy, and thousands of Liverpool fans attended each year to show support for the families and the cause. At the request of the families, the final memorial service took place in April 2020.
Since 1992, the Liverpool team kit (uniform) has featured two Hillsborough justice flames flanking the number 96 — and more recently 97, with the recent death of 97th victim Andrew Devine.
Anfield features a permanent memorial to the 97 victims. Liverpool fans, along with opposing fans and teams, regularly honor the memories of the dead at the memorial with flowers or other tokens of remembrance.
The Hillsborough Family Support Group, the football club, and its supporters have worked incredibly hard for more than 30 years to memorialize and set straight the story of the events of April 15, 1989. That memory has indelibly imprinted on the culture of the club.
1990 to 2015: The Long Drought, Steven Gerrard, and the Miracle at Istanbul
Liverpool won their 18th league title in 1990, the year after the Hillsborough disaster, and then did not win another for 30 years. In Manchester, Manchester United’s new Scottish manager Alex Ferguson took on the challenge of “knocking Liverpool right off their fucking perch,” and he did just that. Although Liverpool’s three decades without a title included many memorable moments, there is no doubt that Manchester United overtook them as the dominant English team throughout those 30 years.
Of the many lows and handful of highs for Liverpool during this long drought, the most significant were the coming of local hero Steven Gerrard, and the 2005 Miracle at Istanbul, when Liverpool came from being three goals down at halftime to win the Champions League Final against AC Milan.
Liverpool Captain Steven Gerrard: the Scouser in the Team
Steven Gerrard was born in 1980 in the town of Whiston, a suburb of Liverpool. By age 9, Gerrard joined Liverpool FC’s youth academy, and he played his first game for the senior team as an 18-year-old. By the 1999-2000 season, Gerrard was a regular starter in the Liverpool midfield, and he was elevated to become club captain in 2003, when he was only 23 years old.
Although Liverpool’s status as giants of European football had been tarnished by the time Gerrard joined the club as a senior player, the Reds still remained one of the most venerated clubs throughout Europe. By that time, a large percentage of England’s Premier League players came from outside England, which underscores the fact that Gerrard was not only English, but a local “Scouser” from Liverpool (“scouse” refers both to a beef stew that originated in the Liverpool area, and to the distinctive accents/dialects of Liverpool natives – locals are often referred to as “Scousers”).
“Stevie G” became a fan favorite from the moment he first stepped onto the pitch for Liverpool. Along with Chelsea star Frank Lampard, Gerrard was considered one of the best English midfielders throughout his career, and at his peak was regarded as one of the top five players in world football.
Although Liverpool never won a Premier League title with Gerrard, his teams won two FA Cups, three League Cups, the UEFA Cup, and the 2005 Champions League title as the best team in Europe.
The 2005 Miracle at Istanbul
The 2005 Champions League Final in Istanbul, Turkey was the pinnacle of Gerrard’s career, and goes down in history as the most dramatic and memorable European Cup final ever.
But even before Liverpool reached the final that season, there had been plenty of drama along the way.
The Champions League competition is structured in the same way as the World Cup. Thirty-two qualifying teams from countries across Europe earn their spots either by placing high in their nation’s league competition during the prior season, or by progressing through qualifying rounds in the prior summer. The 32 teams are placed in eight groups of four, and the group stage consists of six games – each team plays the other three teams in their group home and away. The top two teams from each group advance to the “knockout” phase of the tournament.
Going into Liverpool’s final group stage match against Olympiakos in December 2004, Liverpool needed a win to advance to the knockout rounds. Indeed, due to tiebreaker rules, Liverpool actually needed to win by two goals.
In the 86th minute of that match, Liverpool was up by only one goal, and Olympiakos stood poised to advance (“go through” to the next round of the tournament). But, with only minutes left, Liverpool’s all-action captain Gerrard took over. Gerrard launched a 25-yard half-volley that arrowed past the keeper into the net (a volley is kicking the ball while it’s still in the air; a “half-volley” usually refers to a ball that has been kicked just after it hits the ground). Television commentator Andy Gray famously exclaimed, “Oh you beauty! What a hit, son! What a hit!” Liverpool won the match 3-1 and went on to the knockout stage.
In the knockout rounds, teams that face one another play two “legs” – that is they play two games – one at each team’s home stadium. The aggregate score from the two matches determines which team goes on. In the second leg of the semifinals in 2005, Liverpool faced their English rivals Chelsea at Anfield. Chelsea were the runaway winners of the Premier League title in 2005, and were managed by pantomime villain José Mourinho. Never shy of tooting his own horn, Mourinho had dubbed himself “the Special One” at the press conference announcing his hiring as Chelsea manager in 2004.
In the first leg of the semifinal at Chelsea’s home stadium (Stamford Bridge), the teams tied 0-0. Then, in the fourth minute of the second leg at Anfield, an LFC player and Chelsea’s goalkeeper raced to reach a lofted pass into the center of the penalty box. Liverpool’s attacker got there first, but was only able to tip the ball into the air before being knocked down by the keeper (for what likely would have been a penalty kick if LFC hadn’t scored immediately afterward). Liverpool’s Luis Garcia charged in and got just enough onto the ball to send it slowly toward the mostly open goal. One of Chelsea’s defenders tipped Garcia’s shot on the way to the goal, and another defender slid into to kick the ball off the goal line just as it got there. For a shot to be counted as a goal, the entire ball must cross the plane of the goal line.
In this case, the referees ruled that Garcia’s shot had fully crossed the line, and gave Liverpool the goal. Neither team scored another goal in the game, and Liverpool advanced to the Champions League Final by an aggregate score of 1-0. To this day, José Mourinho will mutter that “I lost a semifinal with a goal that was not a goal.”
A few weeks later in the Final in Istanbul, Liverpool faced off against AC Milan, who were then considered by most to be the strongest club football team in the world. Milan demonstrated its might in the first half, scoring in the first minute, dominating the match, and taking a well-earned 3-0 lead into halftime. During the break, the Liverpool supporters defiantly launched into an impromptu rendition of “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” And their heroes responded.
Gerrard opened the scoring for Liverpool in the 54th minute by lofting a header across the goal and over the stretching keeper. Two minutes later Vlad Smicer struck a ball 25 yards from goal that sliced into the corner, bringing Liverpool to within a single goal.
Seconds later, Gerrard got a pass that put him “through on goal” – that is, one-on-one with the goalkeeper – when he was fouled from behind and Liverpool had a penalty kick. Manager Rafa Benitez, who was in his first season at Liverpool, instructed young Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso to take the penalty, even though he had not taken one previously in a professional match. The Milan keeper saved the initial penalty kick, but the rebound fell back to Alonso, who then sent the ball into the roof of the net to tie the match.
Neither team scored in the remainder of the 90 minutes nor in 30 minutes of extra time. This meant that the outcome would be decided by a penalty “shootout,” where each team takes five alternating penalty kicks.
My Personal History as a Liverpool Fan Begins in 2011
I became a Liverpool fan in the summer of 2011, which was only a few months after one of the lowest points in Liverpool’s modern history. Liverpool’s American owners – Tom Hicks and George Gillett – had fired Rafa Benitez as manager at the end of the 2009-10 season. In his place Hicks and Gillett hired Englishman Roy Hodgson, who was an absurd choice to become Liverpool’s manager.
Through Liverpool’s glory years in the 1970s and 1980s, and even during the long title drought, Liverpool were well known for playing flashy, attacking “pass and move” football. Even when the Reds were not winning titles, they were generally aggressive and fun to watch.
But Roy Hodgson brought a very different mindset to Liverpool. Hodgson favors a very old-school, conservative, and defensive brand of football. Hodgson’s teams sit back in organized tight lines to defend, while occasionally breaking forward on a counterattack. This is typically the tactical approach that most of the so-called “smaller clubs” in England take against their richer and more talented opponents in the league. This approach is generally quite dull to watch, and it arguably reflects a defeatist attitude about the quality of the players on your own team.
Meanwhile, off the pitch, owners Hicks and Gillett had run the team’s finances into the ground, and they were facing potential receivership due to insolvency. Boston’s Fenway Sports Group (“FSG”) emerged to purchase and take over the team in October 2010. This removed the specter of receivership, but nonetheless created further panic among Liverpool faithful, who had just lived through a nightmare set of American owners who understood neither football culture nor football business.
Predictably, Hodgson’s Liverpool team had started horribly in the 2010-11 season. On Jan. 8, 2011, Liverpool’s new ownership fired Hodgson following a loss to Blackpool that left Liverpool in 12th place in the league table, more than halfway through the season. In his place, FSG appointed club legend Kenny Dalglish as interim manager. Dalglish had left the club in 1991. Two years of dealing with the aftermath of the Hillsborough Stadium disaster had left King Kenny emotionally spent.
In 2011, Interim manager Dalglish immediately got Liverpool playing “Liverpool football,” and they also began to win. Liverpool finished the 2010-11 season in a respectable sixth-place position, and FSG subsequently hired Dalglish as the permanent new manager.
And that’s where I came in. My wife and I had just purchased a new PlayStation for our son, and I had quickly gotten hooked on soccer by playing his FIFA game. Don’t fret, I’m not a monster. Within days of developing my obsession, I had bought my own gaming console so that I wasn’t monopolizing my son’s. I loved FIFA so much that I decided that I needed to follow the sport in real life. I researched the Premier League clubs, and determined that the history and culture of Liverpool as both a football club and a city appealed to me. I love the Beatles. I loved that Liverpool’s captain at the time was a local legend (Gerrard), that their manager (Dalglish) was a club legend, and that the two of them were considered the best two players in club history. I loved the socialist mindset, “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” and the story of the Miracle at Istanbul. I was all in from the get go.
Since the summer of 2011, I have barely missed a kick across 11 seasons. I have made the pilgrimage to Anfield on match day four times.
2015 to the present – Jürgen Klopp transforms doubters into believers
From 2011 to 2015, Liverpool sandwiched three forgettable, mediocre seasons around an exciting, dynamic 2013-14 season when Liverpool finished a close second to Manchester City in the league. Liverpool then lost their superstar Luís Suárez, and then the legendary Steven Gerrard left the team after the next season, which finished quite badly under manager Brendan Rodgers.
Rodgers started the 2015-16 season still at the helm, but we all had the feeling he was holding on by his fingernails. Sure enough, after nine matches, Liverpool were 10th in the table, and FSG “sacked” Rodgers on October 4, 2015.
A few days later, FSG announced the hiring of German manager Jürgen Klopp. At that initial press conference, Klopp told the media and supporters that, unlike José Mourinho, Klopp considers himself “the Normal One.” Nonetheless, at the same press conference Klopp also declared his intention to transform “doubters to believers” at the club.
Next time we will look at how the magical Jürgen Klopp has done exactly that.
See you soon.
