With performances fluctuating from brilliant to bad – often in the same game – supporters are left wondering who the real Liverpool are…
IN 1978, The Who released an album called ‘Who Are You?’ It was their first in three years and came at a time when their early 70s epics had become a bit dated. They were entering a new punk age on the wrong side of 30 and had to react somehow. It was one of the first I bought with my own money a few years later. To be honest, I wasted my money.
But for some reason its title track, which asks that question, has been in my head this week and I’ve no idea why. I don’t believe in foreshadowing, but I was humming it to myself on Saturday afternoon and wondered why. Maybe there’s something to it after all.
Who are Liverpool? What do we want? What did we learn about the Champions?
Well, we’re awful, alright and glorious and often in the same minute. The West Ham game was the season in a microcosm. The defending for both goals was atrocious, the ability to play nice stuff and be tricky most pleasing, and then the finishes — particularly those of Hugo Ekitike and Alexis Mac Allister — were glorious. We ticked boxes in all three categories. Liverpool 2025-26.
Rafa Benitez was obsessed with controlling the game and would be happier with a 1-0 win and a ton of possession more than an end-to-end romp in a 4-0 win. He would have hated Saturday. He would have found it all a bit jazz hands.
But what it was was entertaining. In an age where long throws and a reliance on set pieces are de rigeur, it was wonderful to see two sides take swipes at each other, even though hardly any of the punches landed. It was made better by the fact that the Reds never really looked in trouble thanks to the rare sight of actual first-half goals. By which, I mean actual first-half goals for us for once.
Credit to the Hammers though. I like Crysencio Summerville and Jarrod Bowen and how they came back at us even though much of the game was a lost cause.
But credit to us too. I like that we played two very different types of right-back in the game and both had their worth. I like that Mac Allister has two/three goals in recent weeks after him being bloody awful for much of this season and I liked that Rio got to be Rio for a bit.
Does this make us any good? I don’t think anyone really knows.
You could be sick to the back teeth of them, as I was last week, or you could see the start of something golden, or you could see us as a work in progress which could go any way. I’m not sure what I believe anymore. It’s still a blank page despite the number of games and data we have at our disposal. Every game just throws up more questions.
That The Who album embraced the then new use of synthesisers while the musical zeitgeist was looking at the four chord power punk and New Wave. Slightly behind the time but also weirdly ahead of it in some ways as guitars gave way to a million synth bands in the early 80s. Maybe we’re the same. Maybe this is just a mass of impressive granite that needs to be sculpted before it becomes art. Maybe this is just a lump of rock not going anywhere.
I’m not sure anyone knows. Maybe no one cares and we should just work on being consistent enough to make the Champions League first before the necessary fine tuning begins. Maybe we can’t wait for this weird season to be over, and we can have another go and being something we can all recognise.
Six points against Wolves and then Spurs would help and should be attained, but God knows these days. We could be as good as the Real Madrid performance, or we could be Nottingham Forest (x2) bad. I don’t know. I don’t think they know either.
Rafa would hate that and I’m not that keen on it either.
Who are we?
