Neil and the lads pile into Parr St to pick through another frustrating afternoon for Liverpool.
PODCAST: ALLARDYCED
by The Anfield Wrap | Apr 8, 2013 | Podcast | 7 comments
Neil and the lads pile into Parr St to pick through another frustrating afternoon for Liverpool.
Couple of points. This season you can pay for your season ticket over 10 months interest free but with a £50 admin charge – work that one out.
Regarding the atmosphere, this article by Steve Graves and even some of the comments sums it up perfectly.
http://www.theanfieldwrap.com/2013/01/missing-a-famous-atmosphere/
Bringing on Assaidi was a ridiculous decision. If you wanna give him experience do it when we’re 2-0 up. Although, in hindsight, our season is long over, it’s extremely important we finish on a high. It was similar to when we played Zenit and we had the momentum. It wasn’t the time to bring him on then and it wasn’t on Sunday. No wonder he was shocking with 20 minutes football since January.
I think the reason we didn’t win yesterday was because of the illness to Downing. Sturridge started wellat LFC but he doesn’t seem very intelligent as a footballer.
Strangely muted podcast today, matching the atmosphere at the ground almost. I have some points to observe.
1. I think that part of the problem (atmosphere at the ground) is that there is a feeling among a lot of supporters of a long term depression of the club…a feeling that things are slowly getting more and more mediocre in LFC as a whole, on the pitch, in the boardroom and in the dressing room. The fact that we’re not outclassing ordinary teams from the outset of a match, and in recent years we have seen more and more that teams of WH’s ilk, West Brom, Southampton, Stoke, Blackpool, coming to Anfield with a genuine chance of a win, and as often as not, coming away with, if not a win, then a draw, and a moral victory. It’s like the crowd are anticipating failure and the fear of it makes the crowd as a whole anxious.
2. Socially, not only has the demographic of the crowd changed, there is also a feeling of isolation in society as a whole. Nobody wants to get up and start singing, only to find the rest of the stand not joining in, and then having a laugh at the eejit that stood up. Passion drives singing, and perhaps the showing of that passion is becoming less and less ‘the thing to do’. I think we see that in society at large, politically and socially..people do not want to join in in case they are left on their own, a figure of ridicule, however much that figure would be in their own head.
3. I attended a game at OT as a coach driver for utd. fans travelling from Belfast (what a fun 2 days that was) and the atmosphere was exactly the same. I was in a big stand, and some guy at the back was shouting about the Council Tax and had everyone for 50 yards around him chuckling, because they could hear every word. All this, while the game was going on (Villa. I left after 20 minutes as the crowd sung almost exclusively about LFC when they could be bothered)
I think what I am trying to say is that maybe the malaise is in society in general, not just at football grounds, and the only way to spark an atmosphere is to deliver on the pitch first. We still see an atmosphere on European nights, but only when the chips are down, and again, only when the crowd can have a shared feeling of hope, or of anticipation of something momentous.
How do we fix it? Sadly the only way I think this is fixable is by success. 2005, even 2007 and 2008 are now a long, long time ago, longer than the mere years… we need the rebirth of the club as a power in England and in Europe to rekindle the passion on the kop. The project is all well and good, but it’s corporate style, it’s businesslike philosophy has left the crowd feeling like they too are a corporate resource. Scousers, and the out-of-towners like myself, are far too savvy to be comfortable with this.
Ferd
On those 3 Wembley trips last season I lost my voice on all 3 occasions. It was from singing on the way down and on the way back. There were 30 of us. When we got in the ground though and we all got split up into 2’s and 3’s we didn’t sing once (ok, maybe for 10 mins near the end against Everton). When I was a kid we went on the Kop in groups of 10 and sang non stop from 2.30pm to 4.40pm. My point is kind of backing up what you’re saying – I feel stupid singing at matches at Anfield. I’m 40 years old (but look and feel a lot younger, lol) and I feel embarrassed singing on my own. I don’t like to hear myself singing if i’m not with my mates – fact. People go on about the European nights but for me it’s just because it’s dark and no one can see me so I give it my all.
Answer?? The club should employ a few singers to get the whole thing going. Feedback the sound through the sound system. Free ale for those in the singing section too.
what next… plastic flags for the ‘atmosphere’?
Hi Ferdia,
You’ve hit the nail right on the head here.Society has changed and it’s no longer a big deal to go and enjoy yourself at the match, after impatiently waiting for the game all week,then getting in and letting yourself go.Feeling part of what was going on and feeling that you personally were playing a part as much as the Team.
Your reference to Corporate is spot on.Rodgers is a “corporate manager”just like a politician.Talks himself up with sound bites designed to perputate a myth about himself.He’s got a big wage to hang on to.
I’ve never heard him utter a word that I could identify with.
But then I’m a bit “Old School”;Shankly saying “We battered them nil-nil”,after another game: “It was a travesty of justice”.Paisley saying “Well I just said to Rush try and have a few more shots on goal like”.
Language and sentiments that we as fans and supporters could identify with because that was the way we spoke and discussed things with each other.
A false Number 9? In my day that would have been Number 6 putting his shirt on upside down.And it would have fooled nobody.A reverse winger?Come on that’s surely a winger who runs backwards instead of forwards.What good is that?
But it’s a Corporate Business now and I for one feel less and less able to identify with it!
Good comments Ferdia!
’employ singers’, !!!? – that’s not even funny.
two things:
1) I’ve said it before on here: you have your ticket and it should allow you to sit anywhere in that part of the stand. Therefore, you’ll be with friends and more likely to sing, think up funny songs, which in turn makes the atmosphere more threatening for the opposition.
2) It would help if we had a manager who knew what he was doing…..