The visit of Real Madrid and the return of Trent Alexander-Arnold to Anfield inspired defiance which helped Liverpool secure victory…
I’VE NEVER been one to boo.
It’s always been a combination of Evertonian and pantomime in my eyes. I’m also approaching 40 and therefore it’s not a good time to start.
So, on Tuesday – just like last April and May – I stayed quiet inside Anfield when Trent Alexander-Arnold entered my view.
This issue has boomed around football. It’s been anything but silent. We continue to be subjected to the naval gazing hypocrisy of journalists and pundits. People like Roy Keane, who would’ve disowned his own family to win in his Manchester United prime, are now preaching empathy.
Ultimately, winning is what everything comes down to. Trent left Liverpool to win, he said. Liverpool were winning when he left, we pointed out. His appearance from the bench helped Liverpool win. It inspired the crowd and injected an increased level of intensity for the final quarter of the game.There aren’t many situations in life where anger serves as a positive, but there can never be apologies for Anfield being angry. It’s the best version of itself when it wants to win at all costs. When it collectively decides ‘we’re not having this’.
The likes of Keane knows what Anfield can be. It can clap an opposition goalkeeper running towards The Kop, but can also shake to its foundational core with all the gnarliness of its L4 roots to inspire the team to victory. He and many others dine out on stories of that stadium at its best.
There is always a line, and that doesn’t need mentioning because everyone should know where it is. Discrimination in any form shouldn’t be tolerated across football despite the bonfire of our political discourse.
On Tuesday, an opposition club historically dripping in entitlement and arrogance came to Anfield to win and Liverpool rejected that notion emphatically. It’s that simple.
When Anfield chanted ‘fuck off, Suárez’ in the 2018 Champions League semi-final against FC Barcelona, it was the right thing to do. Not just because Luis Suárez’s only thought that night would have been ‘fuck off, Liverpool’, but because Anfield needed to help the team and it did.
The same applies to Raheem Sterling’s early Manchester City appearances at Anfield. The same will apply going the other way to Alexander Isak if he ever sets foot in St. James’ Park again.
And yet, there’s been a perception all week that Anfield should be some experimental breeding ground for etiquette and decorum. Horrible football grounds are something we should ultimately accept as a positive because it’s an attribute and identity. Arne Slot knows this all too well after his only Goodison Park encounter last year.
In an era of conversation about ticket pricing and the soul of a fanbase inside stadiums, these experiences go someway to nodding towards authenticity. They aren’t – as some now preach – entirely sterile environments where people reach for the corporate hospitality menu over the team sheet. Where only the wealthy, yet uninterested, attend.
If Trent lit the blue touch paper the way players or managers like Mikel Arteta or Pep Guardiola have in the past, then ultimately Anfield will and should react defiantly to that action. Passion is what we demand and therefore must exemplify.
The optics will always be more subjective. Does Alexander-Arnold piss me off more than Pep Lijnders being at Manchester City? Maybe, but facing someone on Sunday who was so integral to Liverpool’s recent success being sat in the dugout of a club I find as reprehensible as them winds me up no end.
My irrationalities are my own, as are each of ours. This week, Liverpool has been judged in the entirety of its fan base by people who are far from arbiters of good faith or character.
Their opinions are just that. You might feel the same or different. There’s one fact with zero ambiguity: Anfield was incredible on Tuesday night.
That’s how I always want it to be.
