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Guardiola is right.... this IS Anfield! by Chris Smith

It was Anfield at its ferocious and unyielding best. An occasion where the decibel level is a literal shock to the system. You’d forgotten it can get this loud and your fight/flight response has something to say about it. It can literally take your breath away; at least it does mine.

 

All you can do is join in with the fullness of your throat to force out the air, before desperately slurping it back in for the next stanza. I guess it’s what gives Anfield and especially The Kop the sense it’s a single living entity that can impose its will. 

 

That’s what happened on Sunday, anyway. It was a day when Anfield, in lock step with the players and manager said “no”. Enough. You shall not pass. There was talk in the Sunday papers – from the usual source of poetic platitudes and minimal substance – of this game being “a Viking funeral for high-Kloppism.” 

 

A fire was certainly lit, but the only mourners at the pyre were an unhinged bald fella in the opposition dug out and within the gruesome away end, for whom success has only brought out the worst. Seriously, what happened to them? They used to be alright. 

 

It was an afternoon where every touch of the football felt like it could be the difference between winning and losing. Every slight positional decision crucial, every whim of the officials potentially devastating. We felt it in the crowd. The players responded to it, and the manager quite correctly got a red card because of it. 

 

On the face of things, there was less on the line in this fixture than in years past. The league seemed gone. They’d started the season as dominant as ever. We looked tired – aged even – while they looked refreshed for a new cycle. It felt like Guardiola had finally seen us off as a rival after years of his brilliant team – regardless of the legitimacy of its assembly – driving us beyond conventional limits.

 

That’s why Sunday felt just as important. Perhaps a defeat, and a potentially heavy one, would have been that Viking funeral, underscoring our early season fears and anxieties? This was a big moment and Anfield knew it.

 

This sharpened the players too. Suddenly we were anticipating, playing with instinct, without hesitation. We looked younger and invigorated. Van Dijk and Gomez looked every bit the impenetrable, unflappable partnership they were for much of the title winning season. The hundred-sprints-a-game scrappy Andy Robertson, for whom a few weeks' rest must have felt like months, was back.

 

James Milner, a man forged rather than born. Once again, when the big occasion rolled around, he told Father Time to sling his hook. Harvey Elliot with the most mature performance you’ll ever see from a kid of his experience. I haven’t been this fond of a young player since Michael Owen and I’m desperate for him to be everything he can be. Darwin’s chaotic cameo, which I loved. Hendo like a man possessed, having finally been let out of the traps. Mo, looking closer to that best in the world icon we were so terrified to lose. He was the literal central figure today. 

 

There was a moment in that second half, after the incredible Ederson save, when the goalkeeper required some treatment. Salah stood in the D hands on hips as the crowd belted out his name. Ten minutes later the net bulged. As he turned and walked back; there was another moment. Just a brief acknowledgement that us sticking with him and the team mattered. 

 

Often, when George plays You’ll Never Walk Alone at the final whistle, it’s in pure celebration. Sure, this was a celebration, but it was also in true defiance. We’re still here. Still standing, still punching. Players, manager, and crowd. We won’t go quietly. We don’t plan on going at all.

 

Anfield is quite simply the best place in the world on days like this. Bear hugs and handshakes on the way out, hoarse voices pushing out a few more choruses in the stairwells, thousands of beaming faces all moving in different directions, eager to spot and share the moment with their mates. It’s an unbelievable privilege to be part of it and one that’ll never, ever be lost on me. 

 

 Chris Smith

@byChrisSmith

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6 minutes ago, Harry's Lad said:

Best place in the world full stop.

No matter how rich they are they can't buy what we have and they hate us for it.

And that makes the win so much sweeter.

 

 


I feel like that goes a long way towards explaining why they have to get so nasty with it. They know deep down everything they’ve done is illegitimate and no one takes it seriously. 

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2 minutes ago, Chris said:


I feel like that goes a long way towards explaining why they have to get so nasty with it. They know deep down everything they’ve done is illegitimate and no one takes it seriously. 


I think this could be spot on.

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It's definitely a big part of it. Their atmosphere is shit, their parades are shot and no-one cares about anything they win. They should just enjoy their own success, but instead they have to try and make everything about us because they're obsessed.

 

Some things you can't buy, and that burns them up.

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Great read.

 

You can always gauge the level of meaningfulness by a final whistle You'll Never Walk Alone and the key it starts in.

 

This one was definitely around F#, which says it all.

 

It had defiance and elation at its core, and there's no way anyone was going to hit "head" at the right pitch.

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11 hours ago, Harry's Lad said:

Best place in the world full stop.

No matter how rich they are they can't buy what we have and they hate us for it.

And that makes the win so much sweeter.

 

 

Never a truer word HL.

 

I think it actually goes beyond hate for us, deep down its probably detest for themselves in knowing that what they crave most, we have in abundance, and despite all their 'success' it will never sate that hunger.

The more they gorge, the more desperate and hungrier they become.

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21 hours ago, tlw content said:

A fire was certainly lit, but the only mourners at the pyre were an unhinged bald fella in the opposition dug out and within the gruesome away end, for whom success has only brought out the worst. Seriously, what happened to them? They used to be alright.  

 Chris Smith

@byChrisSmith

Brilliant description of what the 12th man can do!

 

These days Man City, and particularly Man City fans, will either patronise you or vilify you. Go for it, little Everton, enjoy the pat on the head and the anti-Scouse songs (good natured banter, mind) at The Brick. There is no moderation, no sanity with City - it is a visceral reaction to them not receiving all the praise and adulation they demand, even when their team is assembled at a cost more than the defence spending of most countries.

 

I'd rather we are being vilified, and pissing on their empty parades, rather than join in with the vast majority of Premier League clubs's no-mark 'supporters'. For them, not surrendering and lying on our backs waiting for a tummy tickle from 'Pep' is actually a sign of arrogance, not defiance. Fuck them, fuck their 'Anybody But Liverpool', turn-your-back on sportswashing and murderous regimes attitude. Bring on the hate.

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All this stuff in the papers about the rivalry - heard it as well in commentary on Sunday - is just nonsense. They are an irrelevance, the footballing version of Ben Johnson. The only difference is that they will never be disqualified and the acceptance of their financial doping of the game is leading other clubs to suck on the tits of terrible regimes.

 

All the joy they feel at winning things will be forever tainted with the knowledge they bought it and never earned it.

 

You can copy and paste this in five years when Newcastle are doing exactly the same.

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1 hour ago, CrownPaints said:

All this stuff in the papers about the rivalry - heard it as well in commentary on Sunday - is just nonsense. They are an irrelevance, the footballing version of Ben Johnson. The only difference is that they will never be disqualified and the acceptance of their financial doping of the game is leading other clubs to suck on the tits of terrible regimes.

 

All the joy they feel at winning things will be forever tainted with the knowledge they bought it and never earned it.

 

You can copy and paste this in five years when Newcastle are doing exactly the same.

Every trophy city v2008 have ever won has a massive asterisk against them and now they and newcastle are the RB Leipzig of the Premier League. They should be despised by all other clubs' fans. But it seems many are so wrapped up with us, we're the number one hate. Bizarre.

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Reckon not nearly enough is made of our home record. The last league game we lost in front of fans was in April 2017. I know we lost 6 in the plague season so to a certain extent I get why it isn't talked about constantly, but it's never even mentioned even so much in passing that our unbeaten run at (meaningful) home stretches back five and a half years.

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"Harvey Elliot with the most mature performance you’ll ever see from a kid of his experience. I haven’t been this fond of a young player since Michael Owen and I’m desperate for him to be everything he can be."

 

You and thousands more of us!

 

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On 18/10/2022 at 10:32, Jarvinja Ilnow said:

Brilliant description of what the 12th man can do!

 

These days Man City, and particularly Man City fans, will either patronise you or vilify you. Go for it, little Everton, enjoy the pat on the head and the anti-Scouse songs (good natured banter, mind) at The Brick. There is no moderation, no sanity with City - it is a visceral reaction to them not receiving all the praise and adulation they demand, even when their team is assembled at a cost more than the defence spending of most countries.

 

I'd rather we are being vilified, and pissing on their empty parades, rather than join in with the vast majority of Premier League clubs's no-mark 'supporters'. For them, not surrendering and lying on our backs waiting for a tummy tickle from 'Pep' is actually a sign of arrogance, not defiance. Fuck them, fuck their 'Anybody But Liverpool', turn-your-back on sportswashing and murderous regimes attitude. Bring on the hate.

 

If it were up to me, I'd let you give the team talk next time we play City.

 

Got me proper fired up there!

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59 minutes ago, dave u said:

 

If it were up to me, I'd let you give the team talk next time we play City.

 

Got me proper fired up there!

There I was thinking I was channeling Ryan Giggs.

 

 

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10 hours ago, dave u said:

That Giggs clip is absolutely monumentally brilliant, in the most unintentionally shit way.

 

Least charismatic man on earth. 

It’s the “Southampton 1 -1 Man Utd” that comes up at the end. It’s like it was written by Ricky Gervais

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On 20/10/2022 at 13:38, dave u said:

That Giggs clip is absolutely monumentally brilliant, in the most unintentionally shit way.

 

Least charismatic man on earth. 

Some idiots thought it was a good idea to make him Wales manager - a team which is nothing without passion. 

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On 20/10/2022 at 13:38, dave u said:

That Giggs clip is absolutely monumentally brilliant, in the most unintentionally shit way.

 

Least charismatic man on earth. 


How has he pumped so many nice women? 
 

Life isn’t fair. 

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Pep is right but he forgot the Sand and Cheat Stadium, plenty not to moan about you odious doped up fraud. Sterling onside goal, Kompany tackle, not to mention the handball in Toffeeland all costing us leagues, odd he never mentions them. 

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