A vision of an alternative future turns into a brush with history. Xabi Alonso said he didn’t want to come to Liverpool as tourists and his Bayer Leverkusen certainly leave without any mementoes. Not a point. Not a goal. Not their pride. Not any hold on Luis Diaz, either, who hit a hat-trick. Leverkusen didn’t even see that much of the ball, as Liverpool translated almost 60 per cent possession into a comprehensive 4-0 win.
For all the inevitable focus on a former Liverpool Champions League winner who knew how to play a pass – and suffered a reckoning here – wins like this are maybe the moment when it’s worth going further back into the club’s European past. There is a genuinely noteworthy reference that comes from the last time Liverpool saw a charismatic figurehead replaced by a more placid character.
Bob Paisley once spoke of a realisation he had in the mid-1970s, when he was still bringing the club out of the Bill Shankly era, and Liverpool hadn’t yet won any of their six European Cups. “We realised it was no use winning the ball if you finished up in your backside. The Europeans showed us how to break out of defence effectively. We had to learn to be patient and think about the next two or three moves when we had the ball.”
Is the last sentence not the perfect description of Arne Slot’s Liverpool? That goes right up to how their control in the first half seems like a conservation of energy as much as anything, allowing them to burst late on in games – and maybe the season?
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 06, 2024 من The Independent.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة November 06, 2024 من The Independent.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
'Explaining a film takes the fun away for the audience'
Acclaimed director Andrea Arnold speaks to Louis Chilton about working with Barry Keoghan, plucking great actors off the street, and why working in US TV felt like a holiday’
Why you can't buy tickets on the UK's newest airline
Simon Calder hears about the benefits of wet lease’ capacity and white-tail’ aircraft from the boss of Ascend Airways
Fly me to the moon? Not tonight, thanks, I'm busy
Singer Olivia Rodrigo says men who want to go to space are weird’. It makes sense, writes Helen Coffey, who has her own list of signals that a first date is also likely to be the last
Penned in: family farms are facing an existential threat
Coming from a generation of farmers, Richard Benson has seen the battles those in agriculture face as he fears the tractor tax’ will irrevocably damage the British countryside
Barbados kid leading next generation in all formats
Jacob Bethell is starring for England in the West Indies with his flamboyant style and has a big future in the Test game
United have found a classy manager, in any language
Sporting CP’s Champions League match with Manchester City last night was full of intriguing sub-plots, as manager Ruben Amorim prepares to join Manchester United later this month and his sporting director and close friend, Hugo Viana, prepares to join City in the new year.
City thumped by Sporting in Amorim's home farewell
Ruben Amorim endeared himself to Manchester United fans before even arriving at Old Trafford by engineering a stunning 4-1 defeat of Manchester City with Sporting Lisbon.
Devastating second-half display sees Reds run riot
A vision of an alternative future turns into a brush with history.
North Korean troops will be cannon fodder' in Ukraine
The North Korean troops being used to bolster Russian forces in Ukraine face becoming cannon fodder” and their presence in the region will not alter the path of the war, said military experts.
McGregor 'took cocaine and raped woman' in hotel
Conor McGregor allegedly pinned down and raped a woman ina Dublin hotel while high on cocaine, the city’s High Court has been told.
