Liverpool need to lose the fear and regain their identity
Liverpool are the club of Hunt and St John, Keegan and Toshack, Dalglish and Rush. They are the club of Souness and Whelan, Barnes, Beardsley and Aldridge, the club of Gerrard and Alonso, and Salah, Firmino and Mane. They are the club of partnerships and teams united and defined by a common identity: courage. Liverpool are the club whose teams played with courage whatever the challenging circumstances. They got on the ball, got on the front foot, pressed and attacked. They didn’t necessarily go gung-ho, although they had plenty of entertainers like Barnes and Salah. They went for goal, for victory, and trophies kept arriving.
Beyond the crest and shirt colour it was hard to see much connection between the Liverpool that set out for damage limitation over in Paris last night and their bolder forebears. When Liverpool went to Parc des Princes for the 1981 European Cup final against acclaimed opponents, the Real Madrid of Juanito, Santillana and Laurie Cunningham, they played with belief and famously won through a goal from “Barney Rubble”, their left-back, Alan Kennedy. He’s an unlikely club legend but, in many ways, the epitome of Liverpool’s identity – courage. He scored in big games. No fear. Sammy Lee – fearless. Ronnie Whelan – fearless. Sadio Mane – fearless. That was their nature - and also the tone set by their managers.
Shamefully, there was fear in Liverpool’s performance last night. The five-man defence assembled by Arne Slot screamed damage limitation. It was like he didn’t trust them not to make mistakes so crammed the defence, including Ryan Gravenberch attempting to shield in front of them. Further forward, there was little sustained pressing. I spoke to Graeme Souness recently and he laughed at the suggestion that pressing was a modern invention. Liverpool were pressing through Ian Rush in the 1980s.