“WE’RE Liverpool. We’ll never be on defensive!” – Kenny Dalglish, interview for Sky before the Manchester City semi-final at Anfield.
When I heard King Kenny saying those words on the night which would become the best night at Anfield last season (along with the Man Utd match in the FA Cup and the drubbing Chelsea in May), something clicked inside me.
Despite being an LFC fan for all my life, I couldn’t fully understand that philosophy, that mentality of the great Reds sides of the 70’s and 80’s. I heard a lot about “the Liverpool Way“, saw lots of classic games, but still couldn’t say I really was able to fully understand it.
The Liverpool Way wasn’t, isn’t, and never will be about keeping the ball, tiki-taka, total football or whatever you want to label it as. It is about winning things and giving it all on the pitch. I heard and read lots of criticism of Dalglish last term; about his “wrong priorities” of putting cups higher than the league etc. Do you really believe all that nonsense? Kenny was the first to say that the next game is the most important one and I shall never believe that it wasn’t what he meant – whatever they say. He is a winner, one of the dying breed of the true Liverpool Way; he just didn’t know what it meant not to try and win every game.
There’s no such thing in football as priorities. You never know what will happen in the game, that’s why we love it so much. I’m not quite sure that prioritising the Premier League, for example, and giving up on other competitions is fair to the fans. Me, as a fan, I’d be really disappointed if the manager would come and say that the priority is the EPL and in the cups ‘we’ll just play the second-string side and see where it takes us’ – like AVB did last term with Chelsea. Di Matteo did otherwise and landed two cups (one on penalties, one on ref’s awful moment of blindness with Andy’s goal).
Last season the Reds gave us the best night for past six years winning the Carling Cup. I loved it when we outplayed Barcelona, destroyed the Mancs in their own backyard and humiliated Real Madrid, but winning things was something we lacked. And that’s what LFC is about. Winning. That creates emotions, feelings, passion and memories. I’ll remember for a long time Dirk’s hat-trick against Man Utd, Jerzy’s saves from Shevchenko, and Carra’s heroics on that night in Istanbul. But the thing I’ll never forget and many of those who are yet to be born will know are the titles that Liverpool won – “the name’s on the trophy. That’s all that matters.”
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That’s the first thing that Brendan Rodgers should understand. That LFC isn’t about tactics, statistics, ball possession or anything like that. You can’t be a success here with a 190-page dossier. You may at Swansea or somewhere else, but not here. To be successful here, to be remembered here you have to implement something that you may call passion or spirit; I’ll call it the Liverpool Way. Winning and giving it all.
I heard this summer during Euros Alan Shearer saying that giving 100% isn’t good enough, it has to be basic. He went on to add that he would find 11 men who’d work their socks off in Newcastle city centre. I tend to agree with him in a way but not completely. If everyone were to give their 100% every game, which is impossible, the score would be 0-0 each time.
So, Brendan, forget about dossiers, tiki-taka’s and Swansea. You’re at a proper football club now. The club that lives and breathes its fans, who live and breathe the club. The club that plays the Liverpool Way. And wins the championship in May.
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rubbish article…its now modern era..n modern football…see what spain can get by total football..look at barcelona can get by total football too..liverpool can change as long it will give benefit to them..so u are rubbish to say somethng like that..as total football can win the game
eh… winning requires tactics, a manager that just says “go and win” wouldn’t last very long in the job.and rodgers aint going to forget all his past experience, otherwise were would he be?, its that experience that got him the job at liverpool…
bad, thoughtless writing on the journalists part.
absolutely spot on. All this crap about the Swansea way. that’s the way LFC have been playing for 50 years.
Best posting for a long time
Nice article, unfortunately it’s no longer about trophies, it’s getting into money making situations like a minimum of 4th place to get into the Champions League which then sells shirts, and helps the owners screw more money out of sponsors, etc. etc. The Liverpool way has I’m afraid gone. We can’t afford to have large squads, too costly in transfers and wages. producing home grown talent will help to some extent. our only way out of the mess Parry and Mores left us in is to become the plaything of some rich oligarch or Arab sultan.
This article is really laughable…. Agreed, football is about winning trophies, but how will you win that when you have no game plan??? Its all about winning each game and it doesnt matter how, whatever philosophy, tactics, so long we are winning. And so far, there hasnt been any basis to criticise Rodgers style of football…. Give him a break.
Rubbish!!! This article is near sighted at best. You’re telling me that the managers of old (70’s and 80’s) approached the game with no tactics, no plans, no philosophies? Rodgers is the closest thing out there that embodies the “liverpool way”. And as far as I can tell, he’s completely committed to our beautiful club. Get your head out of your ass and pay very close attention… Liverpool’s finally attractive again.
What utter CACK!
I never reply on message boards but this article is the biggest drivel I’ve read!
The Liverpool Way WAS about playing AS WELL AS winning! They come part and parcel and it’s as relevant today as was back then.
PASS & MOVE – “a simple game made dificult by over complicating.”
You state that IF all players gave 100% then games would be 0-0 (???), then surely this boils down to management tactics?
Also, you write as if you’ve given BR one season to deliver silverware!
Get real! PLEASE!
Rodgers has already said it’s all about winning so I don’t know where you’re going writing this article. For all fans it’s about winning too, but doing it in a stylish entertaining way that makes other team and fans jealous would be nice..
If u need the liverpool way then we must improve the squad and not end 8th in the league.so what you are saying is crap cause this squad is short of players who give their whole heart for liverpool just like xabi, kuyt and albeloa did. Liverpool way is to kill small teams and to be feared when teams face as, showing the fighting spirit and winning things.
This is article is rubbish!
what are you on about? lol
you need medication lmao
The “Liverpool Way” is a mix of giving 100% on the pitch and tactics of pass and move football…which by the way numbskull is what tiki taka or total football actually is. How can you write for this blog and know nothing of Liverpool Football Club’s tactical history?
what a crap article… i think you should find something better to do than to come up with some rubbish… we have to play good football and win…. giving all is playing with focus and style.. not just effort and running all over like headless chickens
Christ! That some pile of crap all baced on a cliche. The football world is evolving and if clubs don’t evolve with it then they get left behind. Cop on!
Give brendon rodgers a break. he had said a lot of details on his approach to liverpool football club n all of it is positive. even rafa did say as much as brendon.
Give brendon rodgers a break. all he has done and said were all positive for liverpool football club. I cant remember any recent liverpool manager did that. Not even rafa. so go on brendon do your thing n we will support you.
This article is nothing short of a joke. Insisting on “The Liverpool Way” is exactly why we finished 8th last season and have steadily declined since Kenny had the luxury of money, Fagan, Moran etc in his last tenure. Liverpool need to move with the times. Adopt a modern approach to a modern game. Gone are the days when LFC had all the dough and the best players. Gone are the days when teams came to Anfield “expecting to lose”. That’s all gone, gone gone and JW Henry appointing Brendan Rodgers was a masterstroke in my opinion and sone the last owners didn’t have the common sense, let alone the bottle to do. The Reds will get 4th place this year!
Absolute bollocks
Wow….. I was gonna go on to say what a wretched piece of crap of an article this is but it appears that I have been beaten to the punch… So I’ll use this space to thank the last few commenters for saying what I was thinking. Don’t quit your day job Nicky, unless it’s writing this waste of space. I feel like I got ripped off and I didn’t even have to pay anything. Thanks for wasting 2 minutes of my life. Next time post a warning reading ” Not to be read by those who have something better to do than listen to someone who speak about something they don’t know what their talking about, or for that matter what planet their on. What did your writing hand have an epileptic fit while on the keyboard and you decided to just screw it and post it anyway? Thank you….. No not you Nicky… the commenters who know tosh when they see it.
And the prize for worst artical of the whole summer goes to Nicky Curzin Woo Whoo dopey muppet woo whoo woo whoo clap clap
My girlfriend who’s forgotten more about football than you’ll probably ever know about the game says you should’ve stayed silent and let people assum that you are thick rather than writing stupid articals like this one and confirming to the world that you are a complete dope.