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LAWSON
ANFIELD REVIEW WITH...
The first time I saw Liverpool win the
league was 1972/73. I was nine at the
time and was at the Leicester City
game at Anfield. I remember seeing
Tommy Smith lift the trophy, but you
don’t really appreciate what it means
at that age. It’s only as you get older
that you realise these moments are
special.
For too many years, too many of us
took winning the league for granted. I
remember being on the Spion Kop before
the first game of one season and saying
to my mates I’d rather win the FA Cup
because we hadn’t won it for a while.
We knew that whoever finished above
Liverpool would win the league and that
didn’t happen very often.
Even in 1990, when I was 26, we
won the league against QPR and we
celebrated by shaking hands and walking
out the ground like it was any other
home game. We took it for granted. But
then a year became two, two became
five, five became ten. Then you start
thinking it’ll never happen again.
We weren’t complacent about every
title win. Some were more special than
others. Winning the league at Wolves
on the last day of the season in 1976 was
special. So was winning at Chelsea in
the last game to pip Everton to the title
in 1986.
In 1987/88, after Everton had won it in
1987, getting it back with that fantastic
team featuring Barnes, Beardsley and
Aldridge was special. We also had a
brilliant team in 1978/79 who scored 85
goals and only conceded four at Anfield
all season.
So I don’t want to say winning the
Premier League title in 2019/20 means
more than any of them, but it feels like
it because of what we’ve had to suffer in
the meantime.
Back in 2008/09, under Rafa Benitez,
we thought it was going to be our year
until an unknown kid called Federico
Macheda scores a last-minute winner forManchester United against Aston Villa to
help them win it.
Then we had the 2013/14 season under
Brendan Rodgers and the unfortunate
slip by Steven Gerrard against Chelsea.
At the end of that season we lost
our best player in Luis Suarez, had
Daniel Sturridge injured for most of the
following year, and Stevie was at the end
of his career.
I thought to myself: how are we ever
going to get so close again to Man City
with all their riches? And then they got
Pep Guardiola!
I though it was never going to happen,
so what Jürgen Klopp has done cannot
be understated. In his fourth full season
as Liverpool manager, after losing what
most people considered to be our best
player in Philippe Coutinho, he has made
us Premier League champions.
The job he’s done is 10/10 and, to me,
he’s right up there with Shanks.
Why I liken him to Bill Shankly isbecause he came here in 1959 and had
to build a team to win the league which,
like Jürgen, happened four-and-a-half
years after he took over. When you look
at the side Klopp inherited compared to
the one that has won the league, he has
built this team himself.
None of the back five – Alisson, Trent,
Robbo, van Dijk and Matip – were here.
Joe Gomez was, but he was playing full-
back. Gini, Fabinho, Salah and Mane are
all his signings.
Bobby Firmino was a square peg
in a round hole and we almost had
Clint Dempsey coming in for Jordan
Henderson! So when you think that
Klopp hasn’t had the same resources
as Guardiola, the job he has done is
remarkable.
It’s just a shame we can’t all be inside
Anfield to see them lift the trophy, but
we’ll put our celebrations on hold and
I’m sure we’ll have our moment to be
even more unbearable than ever!The chairman of the Merseyside branch of the
Liverpool FC Official Supporters Club (right
in photo) on seeing the Reds end that 30-year
wait to be champions of England once again
LES