IT’S back again. The exuberance by virtue of another win. The restoration of hope, over-optimism and delusion. The revitalisation brought by a new manager who pleads with his players to have fun, and to have fun winning.
And I’m having fun. Still smiling through the kind of two-day hangover that surfaces only following a 4-1 win away and domination of the team the table told us to fear most. Breathtaking in transition, chances created in abundance and the arrival of Bobby Firmino, who announces himself to the league as Liverpool’s next boy from Brazil to be feared.
The weight of what’s gone before is lifting fast and Jürgen Klopp has instilled a new-found confidence and sense of togetherness that bears semblance to a team who are enjoying playing football for Liverpool.
There’s a resurgence of players emerging with a renewed sense of value and importance within Jürgen’s Reds, amidst a revival they can get behind. A revival we can all get behind.
Some repeatedly relegated to the periphery under the previous regime are now reinvigorated by the emotive orchestration of their manager on the sidelines. He’s an unrelenting almost intimidating presence who cannot be ignored and is perfectly demonstrative of how he’d like his team to impose themselves. And that they did at the Etihad.
Firmino and Coutinho dazzled and danced in a way we’ve not seen this season. The continuation of Adam Lallana’s transformation under Klopp was evident, selling dummies and suffocating City’s centre backs at every opportunity. In an emphatic first half, he epitomised exactly the mantra of his new manager. You’d have been forgiven for thinking he was the fourth Brazilian in Liverpool’s line up.
Lucas Leiva, our midfield fortifier and calming figure of seniority, now appears armed with a new found dynamism and diligence, continuing to dispel any worries that he wouldn’t fit in at Klopp’s Liverpool.
Doomed to depart for Besiktas last summer, destined for Inter every other, he’s now undroppable and unsellable — something that could seldom, if ever, be said under Brendan Rodgers. I’m honestly debating whether to sack this piece off to write a Lucas Leiva love letter instead. He’s that good.
Alberto Moreno and Jordon Ibe, who previously looked lost trying to find their identity as Liverpool players, are now showing their worth for Liverpool. Even the much maligned Dejan Lovren enjoyed arguably his best showing on Saturday — suggesting that there’s at least a possibility he still could yet add his name to the list growing longer of Liverpool players showing a renewed worth under Klopp.
The correlation is confidence. There’s a feeling of self importance amongst the players again. These are the tools for the job. These are the players who have emerged, previously bereft of belief, now placating any negativity leftover from the previous regime.
As Klopp adds the charisma and leadership qualities to a side in need, there’s a togetherness growing within the club as a collective.
He’s building an affiliation with his players, just like at Dortmund. You see that in the celebrations and in the hugs. Us against them, the way it should be.
Firmino, Coutinho, Lallana and the rest ensured any headlines around their reunion with Raheem was dominated by the performances of only those in a red shirt, reminding us that it is only those in red that matter.
These Reds are the real deal. In a league led by Leicester City, where we blitz City 4-1, who knows what can be achieved with a revival that we’re all behind.
[rpfc_recent_posts_from_category meta=”true”]
Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda-Photo
Like The Anfield Wrap on Facebook
Lets not forget who saw what Firmino could do for the team and brought him to the club.
the transfer committee?
You think Rodgers was responsible for scouting Firmino ???…..I’d be more inclined to believe that Klopp was put in place during the summer and Bobby was on his wish list.
yes, but played him as wing back or midfield 5?
Not a BR hater here,and lots of credits to him where due, but that is history now.
JK is “world class”…and I start to believe not only he can walk on.water, but he can also make the whole squad walk on water and miraculously turn a team of water into done wine in such a short time.
* fine wine
I love your loyalty. It’s a great quality to have but I please don’t dwell on the past. We as Liverpool fans have done it too often in recent years. Rejoice in this 4-1 win. Hope springs eternal.
Oh the optimism is back. Let’s have more of that…loads of it. can’t wait until Sunday!
Best performance since…….? (My choice – Arsenal 5-1) I presume someone out there has brought Herr Klopp a bevy!!
We had what you could class as undoubtedly world class players last year for Arsenal and for Real in 2009 – we were just much better than the sum of our parts the other day. Coutinho’s nearest dammit of the current team but he’s still more potential than already arrived like Suarez, Gerrard, Torres, Alonso etc. from those other great games we’ve played. City are arguably a better side than what those two were as well and it was at their place.
That was an unreal performance. Couldn’t believe what I was watching because it’s not as if we have been on a good run of form or seen as a great side recently. A big improvement on the Chelsea win never mind away to United the other month; incredible it’s the same set of players.
Still think we need our best center half, midfielder and forward back from injury before you can bank on us breaking down most of the teams that just turn up to sit in at Anfield like we did for fun in 2013/14. Once you put Sakho, Henderson and Sturridge into Saturday’s team playing that way, we can look to win this league. City should probably still finish first this season and we’ve just demolished them.
“City are arguably a better side than what those two were as well and it was at their place”
Think you’dbe hard pressed to argue Man City are better than that Real side. They were the double Spanish league Champions at the time while Man City aren’t even the current English Champions, and are still yet to win a game, let alone a tie, in the knock out stages of the Champions League.
Deffo better than that Arsenal side tho!
I just like us backing ourselves again. It’s all i constantly want, that fact that we can look at any team in the league, give them their respect before a ball is kicked but then go on the field and have football arrogance and just beat them. Beat them black and blue because the REDS are boss, then niceness again as we walk away from them saying they were a tough opponent etc etc.
If we win the next 6 (which is very possible but obviously in football these things don’t work that way) we’ll be on 38 points at the half way stage of the season.
We’ll be averaging 2 points a game, which is title winning form really. We have Sturridge and Henderson to come back in, plus Sakho then back in the new year.
Averaging 2 points a game with the best manager in the league.
All the top teams, and Everton, played away from home.
Averaging 2 points a game…
Go on, write the Lucas Leiva love letter! He deserves it.
John kind of already did! http://www.theanfieldwrap.com/2015/11/lucas-leiva-and-that-is-why-we-like-him-we-like-him-we-like-him/
The best thing about Jürgen Klopp is he’s a manager and a man who BELIEVES in his players, which in turn makes his players BELIEVE in themselves. As regards the fans, this is the season of separating out the Doubters and Haters from the Believers. Choose your side.
This is a very clever man.But he keeps his cleverness to himself.
No talk about reverse wingers or false number 9’s.No mention about what he did with inverted diamonds.And if,like me,you don’t understand any of that you’ll know how the players must have felt.
The vast majority of footballers play to win a game.They take the law into their own hands sometimes because they back their own ability.They want to win.
Dressing rooms can be hostile places sometimes after a game.But the biggest fall-outs I’ve ever witnessed have usually been about a player or players not putting a shift in.
Imagine what it must have been like playing the football equivalent of painting by numbers with wide left players shoe-horned into playing right-back and attacking midfielders stuck out wide.I bet there were no fall-outs between players operating under those kind of constraints.
But now you’ve got genuinely capable players operating in positions that suit their skills.
And the most amazing thing is that they’re playing those positions as though they are comfortable with them.Which they probably are!
And Klopp just says “It was good,but we can be better!”
This.
Rodgers was trying to be too clever for his own good.
Do you think Suarez was actually listening to him when he went out there and took games by the scruff of the neck? Did he fuck.
Let Rodgers take his 200 page dossier to Quatar.
We have the real deal now – straight talking and keeping it simple.
Rodgers never realised that on a jigsaw puzzle you put the sky pieces where the sky is. The time to acclimatise players to unfamiliar positions is when they are juniors. He may well be an able coach but I doubt he’ll ever be a class manager.
Having said that, Shankly and Paisley each turned quality strikers into top class wing halves in Ray Kennedy and Geoff Strong. But I think they saw the potential in those players.
Among all the insults and pejoratives aimed at Brendan, the personal referenced were irrelevant; all I saw was a flounderer who knew what football was but couldmt work out how to play it. I will never be convinced that he would have taken teams to Chelsea or City and planned a way to beat them. His default position was craven. We have a squad that has gone from
shite to shit hot while heavily depleted. Klopp gives youth a chance while Rodgers – ony view at least – picked them to show the owners how badly we needed new players.
I really don’t get the ongoing obsession some of our fans have with Brendan Rodgers. He was our manager while he was in Liverpool and was employed by FSG and the Club, and it was the correct and respectful thing to support him as the manager then. He’s not anymore. He’s gone, and Jürgen Klopp is now the manager. Why are you still talking about Brendan, who’s no longer connected to Liverpool in any way? He’s moving on with his life. Move on with yours.
Rodgers would have preferred to play a 4-3-3 to the end of time, but created the diamond to get Gerrard on the pitch. And went to the back three because both Balotelli and Mignolet spent months being crap. If we signed a proper replacement for Suarez, there’d be no need for fiddling around. Ultimately, losing Sakho and Sturridge and Lucas around the same time as Sterling downing tools post-interview ended a run of 18 games with just two losses.
The problem was not a manager who loves to play everyone out of position, it was being forced to take a striker who immediately negates the strengths of Gerrard, Coutinho, Henderson, and even Sterling. Long diagonals, brilliant through balls mean nothing without pace and movement. Creating space in the box means nothing if your striker has floated off far from said box.
If we had Firmino last season, along with a fit Lallana – never mind Sturridge, Flanagan, and Sakho – there is no doubt we could have continued upon the 26-6-6 record with the +51 goal difference. We saw a glimpse of what a fit Lallana could do at the Swansea 4-1 last season, in a rare bout of fitness.
As for Mr. Head suggesting that Suarez wasn’t listening, obviously didn’t read his post-LFC book, where he raves in detail about the effect Rodgers’ tactics had on elevating him to the highest elite. We saw Suarez trying to win it alone under KK and got 21 goals in 52 games compared to 61 in 81 under Rodgers.
Under Rodgers in 13/14:
Most wins in the PL era
Best home record in PL era
Best goal difference in the PL era
Longest winning streak in PL era
2nd most points in PL era
3rd fewest defeats in PL era
Most goals scored since 19th century
Closest to title in 25 years
Poetry in motion, the Liverpool Way
Can’t imagine Klopp would be too impressed with people constantly slating the guy who was Manager of the Year just one season ago. It speaks poorly of the supporters. YNWA
Exactly this. It’s like no other manager has ever struggled at times. it’s like, in order to fit the narrative, that 13/14 didn’t happen.
I saw a couple of comments (not on here) that said Saturday was our best performance since old Trafford in 2009 or Madrid the same week – and Rodgers would never get us playing like that. I mean, what the fuck???
Rodgers struggled to find a solution last year – get over it, it’s done. And it’s better to praise Klopp in his own right than by damning Rodgers to prove the point. I am pretty sure Klopp would fucking hate to see this sort of stuff being said.
It’s Tuesday and I am still buzzing off that win….
I look at the league and can’t help but think we made the change at the right time.
Klopp can make this season a success…
I want Thursday now!!