In a week that Arne Slot’s Liverpool offered a little bit of everything, the thing that stood out most was that the players themselves would be expected to embrace more in the way of self-determination than under the previous manager.
It is fair to suggest that Slot is markedly more understated on the touchline when compared to the glorious animation we became accustomed to with Jurgen Klopp, and no longer do we look to the Liverpool manager’s technical area quite so much for our prompts on tempo and matchday ambience.
So much light used to be absorbed by the perhaps unintentional mood music that was dictated by Klopp, whereas Slot is more of a throwback to the calmer and more studious observational methods of say Rafael Benitez or Gerard Houllier.
Steven Kelly, editor of the iconic Liverpool fanzine Through the Wind and Rain, used to proffer a theory that as supporters, we eventually take on the matchday persona of the man who manages our club.
The more I thought about it, the more it became a theory I found easy to buy into. Under Houllier and Benitez we became that little bit more cosmopolitan, with those ‘we’re not English, we are Scouse’ vibes that had always been there gaining increased wings, while under Roy Hodgson we all became dour disbelievers.
For a spell during the return of Kenny Dalglish, we kind of reconnected with what it meant to be us, and with Brendan Rodgers we had an eye-of-the-storm where we got as carried away with the wild but ultimately unrequited Premier League title-chasing ride of 2013/14, as he did. We all became a bit P.T Barnum.
With Klopp, we all got wrapped up in the heavy metal, work hard, play hard, celebrate hard mentality of it all, and so it will, before long, be that we’ll all morph into our own versions of Slot on matchdays too.
Learning a new way of thinking
We just need to get to know him a bit more first. It’s no different for his players in that respect.
Klopp was a force of nature when it came to imprinting his personality on games, arguably dictating the outcome of some afternoons and evenings by his sheer force of will, energising the crowd who in turn spurred the players on to escalating heights.
It was the Klopp way, and it was magical and volatile.
Yet, none of that is to suggest there is only one way to skin opposing teams and build the type of cause that we thrive upon being, given that we’ll always be more than a simple football club.
As good as it was, the Klopp way was just one way.
Slot is undoubtedly utterly meticulous in his groundwork on a game-to-game basis, but while he won’t be out there on the pitch with his players quite like Klopp was – there will be other benefits that spring up because of that.
It will all be about finding our own voices.
The new conductor doesn’t wave his baton to the audience quite as much as the previous one, so we’ll have to be significantly more responsible for the atmospherics, and certainly the Anfield atmosphere has been that little bit more muted in the opening games of the 2024/25 season as we readjust ourselves to the new normal.
Against Brentford, the atmosphere amplified at the start was one of business as usual with a sort of ‘the king is dead, long live the king’ aura at play, only for it to peter out as the afternoon wore on.
However, against Nottingham Forest, the acoustics were as flat in the stands as the rhythm surprisingly was on the pitch.
On Saturday, for the visit of Bournemouth, there was an improvement in both sound and vision, but with a distinct feeling that both supporters and players can still do much better.
Just like on the terraces, events on the pitch have been mixed so far under Slot, although Forest aside, the results have been excellent. Victories have come but during games that have fluctuated at times.
At Ipswich, we were notably second-best during the first half before dominating the second.
We worryingly never got into the game against Forest, and in Milan we had to turn around a sluggish start, something that was mirrored on Saturday with VAR stepping in to cancel out what would have been another early goal conceded.
Against Forest, we struggled to master the basics, with loose passes far too regularly indulged in and the final ball lacking, something that was still evident against Bournemouth occasionally. The difference between Saturday and seven days earlier was our ability to conjure up inspiration from spontaneity.
Self-determination
Greater self-determination will be vital to us this season in that respect and there are promising signs that wider responsibility is being picked up, with Ibrahima Konate, Ryan Gravenberch, and Luis Díaz in particular cultivating an impressive spine through a side that looks like it will be altered only occasionally by Slot, in the Premier League at least.
A starting 11 that will be more tightly knitted for league games means greater self-determination will be needed from those on the outside looking in, should they earn themselves a game.
Jarell Quansah hasn’t been seen on the pitch since being hooked at half time at Portman Road. Joe Gomez has clocked up just 11 minutes of action.
As for Wataru Endo, he’s only had a few cursory seconds against Brentford and Milan as a time-wasting injury-time substitute. Saturday was Darwin Nunez’s first start of the season, while Cody Gakpo still awaits his name making the starting lineup.
Within this, self-determination will be in play for those who are getting game time. For Slot’s players, they will need to be consistently on it in order to keep hold of their places in the team.
It won’t be a case of it being OK missing the bus for one game because they’ll get the shout when the next bus comes along. Some players might just find that their left stood at the bus stop for a prolonged period.
It looks like self-determination is going to be of greater relevance at Anfield for all of us, and it’s no bad thing.
