So Far, Sehr Gut

We’re only six matches into Jurgen Klopp’s first full season in charge at Anfield and already there’s a buzz, a murmur, a fever, an expectation around the place.  We’ve been here before, of course.  For those of us who were there at start of Paisley’s reign it’s easy to forget there is a whole generation of Liverpool fans who have only known cup success, albeit as many trophies as Arsenal since 1990.

Klopp arrived at Liverpool on a metaphorical donkey with many keen to hand him their bread and fish in the hope he could work a miracle.  After the initial euphoria of wins at Chelsea and Man City came the pathetic Sunday lunchtime fare served up at Vicarage Road.  That game was a huge slap in the face of reality as we all struggled to resign ourselves to the fact this squad just wasn’t good enough.  We were in tenth place when he joined and only managed to move up two places by the end of the season.  There were two cup finals to look back on, but still no silverware.  After forty-five minutes in Basel, Liverpool were 1-0 up and well in control against Sevilla.  Twenty-five minutes later and the dream was over. 

At the end of the season there was great expectation the new campaign would bring more hope.  Personally I was a little disappointed with the transfer window.  I had doubts about Mane and Wijnaldum and wasn’t convinced we’d moved enough players on.  It has taken just a few games for those fears to be completely allayed.  .

The transformation has been huge.  Already we’re playing some of the most exciting football this side of Beardsley, Barnes and Aldridge. 

The mention of those three is what has prompted me to write this.  I have wonderful memories of the Dalglish’s 86-91 team with the years between 87-89 seeing us play some of the best football I’ve ever seen.  Paisley’s late 70’s side was the most efficient and fully deserved the title “the red machine”.  Effective, efficient and almost impossible to stop.  But that late 80’s side played the more exciting football, in my opinion.  Not better or worse, just different.

Watching some of those matches again you can be forgiven for forgetting what a complete force they were in attack.  Not a wave, more a tsunami.  There were players attacking from everywhere.  Because of the attacking instincts of the midfield Rush and Aldridge played a different role.  Unlike every other striker around then they would drop off and create space for Houghton, Whelan and McMahon to burst into.  Added to that there was Barnes and Beardsley who also attacked from deep.

Watching Liverpool so far this season reminds me of this team.  We attack from all areas.  Henderson, Wijnaldum and Coutinho along with Lallana, Firmino, Sturridge and Mane.  Add to that Clyne and Milner attacking down the flanks and you get the feeling opposition teams must struggle to work out where the next attack is coming from.  Joel Matip also appears to want to bomb forward in a way Alan Hansen used to.  Chelsea discovered how all-consuming this is and how difficult it is to repel. 

They hunt in packs, they press with ferocious authority and they pass the ball with an alacrity which makes you wish the ability to pause live football was not just for those watching tv. 

Henderson’s wonder strike at Stamford Bridge has also added a further facet.  If you defend deep in the hope of smothering the attacks then this will leave space for someone like Henderson or Coutinho to fire one from long range.

To make up for the lack of big signings Jurgen Klopp has improved a number of players to give us the effect of new introductions.  Milner has been moved to left-back to solve the problem of the madness that is Alberto Moreno.  He has been immense this season.  Always a hard worker, Milner can cross a ball as well as anyone and his ability to understand midfield play has enabled him to support that part of the play with more intelligence than most full-backs.  Clyne on the other flank also offers a great attacking threat which is currently more potent than any other full-back in the country.  The difference between him and Kyle Walker is his willingness to take players on.  This was fully evident to all except the England manager in the summer, it seems.  The current national boss would do well to consider both Liverpool full-backs for his qualification campaign too.

Time could well serve to consider Klopp’s conversion of Milner into a left-back as incisive and forward thinking as Paisley’s conversion of Ray Kennedy from attack to midfield.  Kennedy became one of the most revered players of his generation throughout Europe.  Whether Milner will reach those heights remains to be seen but his value to this team already this season is almost impossible to calculate.

Mane has really impressed me.  Always busy, quick feet and constantly scurrying in a manner Suarez used to.  He doesn’t have the skill and nous of the Uruguayan but this team seems more suited to his style than where he moved from.  The same can be said for Wijnaldum.  He seemed lost at Newcastle and lacking the stomach for the fight, but under Klopp he now has a purpose, a role and is flourishing under it.

Another improvement Klopp has brought is to bring competition for the goalkeeping position.  He bought Loris Karius from his old club, Mainz, but he unfortunately picked up an injury during pre-season.  We were then back to Mignolet for the start of the season.  He can be categorised as ‘decent’ rather than ‘outstanding’.  More a shot-stopper than a modern day keeper and although we’ve had shot stoppers before such as Clemence, Grobbelaar and Reina, Mignolet just doesn’t command his area in the way those three did.  We have also missed Reina’s ability to put us on the attack as soon as he picked up the ball.  But Mignolet now knows he has to fight for his place and that can only be healthy for the team.  The same for Emre Can who increasingly looks as if he could be as important to the team as a Gerrard, a Molby or a Souness.  But injury has seen him have to fight for his way back in and with standards already being set incoming players soon know what level of play is expected of them.

Jordan Henderson is another player who is really flourishing under Klopp.  Now club captain his role in the middle of the park seems to really suit him.  His passing is improving and he isn’t afraid to have a shot, as Chelsea found out, and he also seems to be benefiting from the players around him.  Watching him this season I can’t help but still feel a tinge of regret that Steven Gerrard wasn’t a few years younger.  He’d love playing in this team and he’d definitely love playing under this manager.  But there you are.

It is early days but the performance against Hull City this weekend certainly soothed some people’s fears we can often perform well against the big clubs but come unstuck against sides we really should be putting away with ease.  There’s an enjoyment in the football the players are exhibiting and they seem to have completely have bought into it, in a way mirrored at Man City.

I thought Klopp’s reaction to the Hull game was very poignant.  He could be seen on eighty minutes clearly reminding the players there were ten minutes still to go and he was visibly frustrated the performance had dropped.  He confirmed his frustration after the match and I was taken by the intensity and attention to detail from our boss.

If Man City continue in their current form, along with one or two other clubs, then goal difference could well be a factor come May.  Far better to go into the final game of the season knowing a win could secure the title rather than find three points is not enough as we’d need to win by seven or eight goals to stand a chance.

I realise Liverpool fans won’t want Ferguson’s name mentioned in an article such as this, but it was something he was intently aware of during United’s title years, as he would often lambast the players during the season to keep going and try and get that extra goal.  In 2012 they lost out on goal difference to City by eight goals.  Surely they could’ve found an extra eight goals from their thirty-eight matches?

You get the impression Klopp will never let his players rest on their laurels.  That is one of the major factors which makes him a perfect fit for this club.  It has all the hallmarks of the belief system so strongly instilled in the club by Shankly, Paisley, Fagan, Moran, Evans and Dalglish.

For now, things feel good. In a way similar to the heady days of 2013-14 we now look forward to every match in the belief of being entertained in a way we all feel football should do.  Clearly nothing has been achieved yet and we are barely into the new season but what is sport if you cannot dream?

The Normal One

“I’m just a normal guy, I’m nothing special”, said a Liverpool manager.

If you’d heard those words from any Liverpool manager  during the 1960’s, 70’s or 80’s you wouldn’t have been surprised.  One of the enduring qualities of Shankly, Paisley, Fagan and Dalglish was their ability to garner support bordering on hero-worship and then to reveal themselves to be caked in humility, garnished with respect and covered by a sauce known as ‘down-to-earth’.  They never lost sight of that, almost to the point of struggling to understand their own hype.

Now no one is comparing Jurgen Klopp to these iconic figures and no one should.  He has much to live up to and much to prove, but the opening lines of this particular hit song stand-out enough to demand you lift your head up from twitter and turn ‘shuffle’ off.

This week Jurgen Klopp was unveiled as the new manager at Liverpool.  The club had wasted little time in appointing a replacement for Brendan Rodgers, who was sacked last Sunday.

After the dreary 1-1 draw in the Merseyside derby, Rodgers was relieved of his duties at Anfield and the board set about looking for a replacement.  My own belief in Rodgers finally dissipated after the Manchester United defeat, and the noises around the club, social media etc began to reach the illegal level after the tepid home draw with Norwich.  Rodgers kept his job through the Sturridge-inspired Villa win onto the Merseyside derby.  It’s perfectly possible the owners had already decided to part company with their manager during this period but sensibly waited until the international break to allow time to find a replacement.

Klopp has long been a target as far as the fans are concerned, after the excellent job he did at Borussia Dortmund.  When they arrived for a pre-season friendly, Klopp was keen to show how much he admired Liverpool, its history and its fan base.  Klopp left Dortmund at the end of last season after managing them for seven years.  During that time he won two Bundesliga titles, the German cup and of course steered his team to the Champions League Final.

There has been much anticipation throughout the week on social media amongst reds fans and many of us have been more excited than we can remember about the appointment of a new manager.  When Kenny came back the second time we had little time to prepare for it and there was a certain relief after the circus act of Hicks and Gillett and Roy Hodgson.  When Benitez was appointed, we were excited at the prospect, but there was still a certain amount of reticence.  Personally, I still harboured after an English manager or perhaps an ex-player as foreign managers were still fairly rare in this country and Houllier was the only one we’d had. 

Benitez was a great prospect having won two La Liga titles and a UEFA Cup.  Klopp is equally qualified but there is just something even more exciting about his appointment.  Maybe it is because we know so much more about him than we did Benitez, we’ve seen what he’s done at Dortmund and he is a well-liked and admired individual.  But there is something else which gives many of us a feeling of great enthusiasm for the immediate future.  He is such a charismatic person who promises to offer one helluva ride.  He promises to be a complete joy at press conferences, a ‘must-see’ at post-match interviews and a complete magnet for the media.

He possesses an infectious smile and an ability to deflect pressure away from his players.  He appears to love the game for the game’s sake and one can only imagine how exciting it must be to be a player in one of his teams.  The prospects look bright for players like Sturridge, Coutinho, Ibe and Clyne.  But there are two players I’m particularly looking forward to seeing how they develop under Klopp’s tutelage.  Club captain, Jordan Henderson, has the ability to forge a crucial partnership with the new boss and would seem to be an ideal player for the German.  At his press conference today, Klopp promised to instil a philosophy of ‘full throttle football that is emotional, fast, strong and with a big heart’.  A player like Henderson would appear the perfect pupil and advocate of such an approach.

The one player I am really looking forward to seeing work with Klopp is Emre Can.  The versatile German has been used in midfield and defence during his career and I certainly expect Klopp to continue using his numerous talents, but Can has the ability to become the engine behind the Liverpool machine in a role similar to that of Souness and Molby from days gone by.

Klopp made a huge impression on the watching media during his appearance before them today.  In fact it was probably the single-most impressionable performance in English football since Mourinho’s opening bow in 2004.  Talking of Mourinho, one hack couldn’t resist trying to get a soundbite from Jurgen regarding Mourinho’s famous “I am the Special One” comment but got more than he bargained for.

Klopp simply replied “I’m a normal guy, was born in the Black Forest, wasn’t much of a player. If you want, you can consider me the normal one”.  It’s highly likely “The Normal One” strapline will stick so watch out for a flags, hashtags and banners with that one.  Not special, not chosen, just normal.

Klopp has more charisma than nearly all the managers in the Premier League put together.  When he smiles you can’t help but smile with him, and you can just imagine how ideal a tactic this will be to deflect attention away from his players.  He explained his love for the club made it the only job he wanted in England, which would seem to back up the rumours he’d previously turned down an offer from Tottenham, who ironically will provide the first opponents for Klopp’s Liverpool.  He went onto explain “this is the most interesting job in world football”.  He also said this was “one of the best moments of my life” as he went onto give some clues to how he was going to approach his early days at Anfield.

“You have to change from doubter to believer.  We have to change our performance because nobody is satisfied at the moment.”  He attempted to play down the furore surrounding his appointment by explaining “it’s not so important what people think when you come in….it’s much more important what they think when you leave”.

What has also been evident over the past few days before and since Klopp’s appointment is how supporters of other clubs are in agreement we have struck gold and appointed a good man.  Who knows whether he will turn out to be a great manager, capable of bringing many trophies back to Anfield, but what seems clear is he is not going to be boring.  I cannot wait for the press conferences and to see how he deals with people like Geoff Shreeves.  He’s just going to run rings round these people.

Klopp is a maverick, a non-conformist, unorthodox.  He is comfortable in jeans, boots and a jacket.  He smiles and laughs, endearing himself to his audience when all the time behind those sparkling eyes is a steely determination and ruthless mind which is already a move or two ahead of those around him.  Benitez was a fan of chess, finding the mental and tactical side of the game absorbing.  Klopp strikes you as more of a poker player, but still with that penchant for the psychological side of things.  He is likely to use players in different positions almost as a way of stretching their talents for the good of the team.  He is likely to try different tactics to get the better of his opponents.  These are methods Rodgers used but without the aura Klopp undoubtedly carries.

Two things struck me during that press conference.  Firstly, at this time I’m not really thinking about what we might win over the next few years as all I’m thinking is that this is likely to be a fantastic ride and I can sense the whole club and supporters being lifted immediately.  The colour and energy he could bring to the English game gives one a great sense of anticipation, the like of which we haven’t seen for many a year.  The second thing which struck me was I wondered if Raheem Sterling watched it.  He claimed the club lacked ambition and he was presumably unmotivated by Brendan Rodgers so he switched to Manchester City.  Klopp appears the kind of manager who would really improve Sterling’s game and yet he chose the rather more steady, under-stated approach of Pellegrini.  Personally I hope he sees what he could’ve had at Liverpool and wishes he’d stayed so his game could develop.  It was obvious Sterling was carried along with the excitement and wave of popularity during the 2013-14 season and it would appear when things dipped he had a hankering for their return.  Manchester City are to visit Anfield on 1^st March 2016 and by then the club, the ground and the team should be fully indoctrinated in the ways of Klopp.

And what of Rodgers?  Personally, I wish him well and hope he finds another job in football very quickly.  He set about a project at Liverpool and we are a much changed team and club since he walked through the door in the summer of 2012.  He had his doubters, some from the very first match, and he had his critics who accused him of arrogance, laughed at his cosmetic changes and media approach.  But what you cannot doubt is his belief he could take Liverpool to a new level.  He bought into the whole ‘Liverpool Football Club’ ethos and as supporters we demand that at the very least.  He gave everything he had to the team, the club and the supporters and I would imagine he still believes he had much to offer.  He may need a rest as this club can take so much from a man’s soul, as the aforementioned Shankly, Paisley, Fagan and Dalglish all eventually found out.  Personally, I liked the arrogance as I saw it as self-confidence.  Yeah he may have made mistakes, but who doesn’t?  He made mistakes in the transfer market but every other Liverpool manager before him has done.  I want my leaders to have undying belief in their own ability, as self-doubt, negativity and uncertainty is for us amateurs and mere mortals who have the voices of failure roaming around our heads, hence the position on the side-lines we are destined to occupy.

His legacy will always remain he came closest to returning the League title to Anfield than any other manager in the past twenty-five years, and who knows if he’d had the services of Sturridge for twice as many games as he had things might have been different.  If Suarez had stayed for just one more season who knows what might have been.  But none of that happened and in the cruel, ruthless world of top level sport, he had to pay with his job.

For Klopp a new chapter has opened and for the first three months of this season he must play with the same hand Rodgers left him.  In January it will be difficult to see how the owners cannot give him the tools to shuffle his pack, having chased him so vigorously just three months before.  He is likely to attract top talent from around the world in a similar way Benitez attracted the likes of Xabi Alonso, Pepe Reina, Luis Garcia and Fernando Torres.  I wouldn’t mind betting he will have a different view on the Europa League than many of us have, particularly as success in that competition is a route into the Champions League and if Liverpool cannot compete financially with the top four of English football at the moment, and if he isn’t able to have the team he wants at his disposal this season then that could represent a fantastic opportunity to fast-track the club into a spotlight from which he has just exited.

Whatever happens during the ‘Klopp years’ I have no doubt we are never going to forget it.

Not So Charitable

These days Sky would be trying to come up with superlatives to outdo ‘massive’ as the curtain raiser for the 1974-75 season got underway at Wembley.

The Charity Shield (since renamed Community Shield) had started off as a professionals v amateurs match at the early part of the twentieth century.  From 1930 the format of League Champions v FA Cup winners took shape.  But the game and the format was patchy and inconsistent and it wasn’t until 1959 when it was moved to the start of the season.  There seemed to be a decision every year as to which teams would compete in the match.  In 1974 Ted Croker, then FA Secretary, created the current format of a match between League Champions and FA Cup winners, to be played as a curtain raiser for the new season, at Wembley Stadium.  It was also the first time the Charity Shield would be televised.

The very first match was potentially a dream come true for the organisers.  Liverpool were FA Cup holders and had won the League in 1973.  Leeds United were reigning League Champions and had won the FA Cup in 1972 and were beaten finalists a year later.  In each of the previous four FA Cup Finals contained either Leeds or Liverpool.  In the League the two had finished in the top three in each of the previous three seasons.  In addition to this success they were managed by two of English football’s most successful managers, Bill Shankly (Liverpool) and Don Revie (Leeds United).

Into this battle burst Brian Clough, taking his Derby County side to the League title in 1972 just three years after they were Second Division Champions.  A year later they reached the European Cup Semi-Finals, losing to Juventus.  Clough then tried to call the bluff of Derby’s Chairman, Sam Longson, when he threatened to resign after one of their many fall outs, but this time Longson accepted it.  Clough then spent eight months at Brighton in a rather unsuccessful spell.

In April 1973 England sacked World Cup winning manager, Alf Ramsey, after they failed to qualify for the 1974 tournament.  Former Manchester City manager, Joe Mercer, took over as caretaker manager.  England had the British Home International Championship and then an Eastern European tour, which Ramsey had arranged before he was given the push.  Under Mercer England won three, drew three and lost one of their matches and for a while it seemed he might get the job on a permanent basis, despite appearing reluctant.  Eventually, England plumped for Revie as permanent manager.  This resulted in a vacancy for the Leeds United job.  To everyone’s amazement, including some of his closest friends, Clough put himself forward.

Clough had been a bitter critic of Leeds and Revie’s methods.  He believed they had not won any honours fairly.  They had adopted a particularly tough brand of football, often resorting to kicking opponents off the park, as well as pursuing a continual strategy of gamesmanship.  Clough had made no secret of his view of the side as “dirty” and “cheats” and also called for the club to be demoted to the Second Division as a punishment for their poor disciplinary record.  The Leeds players had wanted Johnny Giles to be promoted to manager, but the directors chose Clough.

At one of his first training sessions he told the players “You can throw your medals in the bin because they were not won fairly”.  He then revealed his plan to get them to win them all again, but playing “clean”.  Unfortunately, the players were clearly unimpressed, struggling to conceal their utter contempt for their new boss.  One player, Joe Jordan, had been singled out by Clough as a diver and a cheat and once he was installed in the Leeds hotseat, Clough duly signed two strikers, Duncan McKenzie and John O’Hare, who were immediate challengers to the Scottish international’s position.  Against this backdrop they embarked on the new season.

The Charity Shield was to be Clough’s first game as manager of Leeds United.

At Anfield, Bill Shankly had just guided Liverpool to their second FA Cup success, both under his management.  In 1973 he guided them to their 8^th League title, and his third, as well as their first ever European trophy, the UEFA Cup.  He was the most enigmatic managers English football had ever seen with many column inches given over to his quotes.  When he took over at Anfield they were a Second Division team, a shadow of a once great club.  He guided them to promotion and then the League title within a few years.  He’d been at the club for over 14 years, yet on 12^th July 1974 Liverpool chairman, Peter Robinson, shocked the football world by announcing Shankly was resigning from the club.  The news shocked football and even when the teams took to the field few at Liverpool knew how they were going to be able to continue.  First team coach, Bob Paisley was a reluctant replacement.

The Charity Shield was to see Shankly lead out his Liverpool team for the last time.

Years later Clough revealed he didn’t want to lead his team out that day, claiming he had asked Revie to do it.  He felt as Revie had won the title with Leeds, he should have the honour of leading ‘his’ team out, but Revie declined the offer stating this was Clough’s team now and his ‘privilege’ to lead them out.  Such was the distance between manager and team, Clough spent much of the match watching from Liverpool’s bench.

Liverpool’s star player was Kevin Keegan.  The 23-year old had been signed as a scrawny teenager from Scunthorpe, yet under Shankly he’d moulded himself into an important player for both club and country.  He scored twice at Wembley in May as Liverpool lifted their second FA Cup beating Newcastle, 3-0.  England’s caretaker manager, Joe Mercer saw Keegan as an important part of the team and played him in each game he was in charge.  After the euphoria of scoring twice in the FA Cup Final, Keegan got his first international goal when he scored against Wales in the Home International Championship.  From there England embarked on an Eastern European tour, and after matches against East Germany and Bulgaria, there was almost an international incident when Keegan was arrested and beaten up in Belgrade airport.  After FA officials managed to convince security guards of who they were attacking, all charges were dropped.  Keegan went onto score in the subsequent match against Yugoslavia.

In a pre-season game at Kaiserslautern, Keegan was sent-off for punching an opponent.  Liverpool claimed it was Peter Cormack who’d thrown the punch, but years later Keegan admitted it was him as several players had been looking to get retribution for a back tackle on one of their teammates.  Keegan just happened to get to the player first.  He’d been through an eventful few months.

Leeds talismanic captain was Billy Bremner.  The diminutive Scot was a Revie-disciple, playing a vital role in the club’s success.  He was in the Leeds team beaten in extra time by Liverpool in the 1965 FA Cup Final.  He’d just spent the summer with the Scotland team for the World Cup in West Germany, where they went out in the Group stage without losing a game.  He was known for his no-nonsense, tough-tackling approach and was the undisputed leader of this notorious side.

To combat this, Liverpool had an equally renowned hard-man, Tommy Smith, and these were the two best teams in England, neither wanted to give an inch.  You had the perfect recipe for a real humdinger yet few were prepared for what they would witness.

The scene was set early on when Allan Clarke was a little vigorous in a challenge on Phil Thompson and Smith took it upon himself to let Clarke know what he thought of it. That challenge earned Smith a booking.  In response, Norman Hunter kicked Steve Heighway up in the air.  19 minutes in and Phil Thompson played a ball forward where Keegan turned Hunter and his shot was parried by David Harvey in the Leeds goal, but the ball bounced up and Phil Boersma bundled it over the line for the opening goal.  Liverpool used that move several times in the first half as Keegan was giving Hunter a torrid time, but in the end he would pay for his impudence.  It was all Liverpool as Hall and Boersma both forced Harvey into good saves, then Emlyn Hughes fired a fierce shot against the bar from 30 yards out.  Leeds only meaningful chance fell to Clarke who headed Reaney’s cross wide when unchallenged in the area.

In the second half Leeds, who’d looked sulky and petulant all afternoon, came more into it but there was little of their zip and movement.  Things then literally ‘kicked-off’ on the hour.  Liverpool attacked and Boersma again forced Harvey into a save, and once again the keeper couldn’t hold it but his follow-up went across the goal to where Cormack retrieved it on the right wing.  Smith then found Hughes, free in midfield just outside the ‘d’ and as he played it to his left to find Keegan, two Leeds players, Giles and Bremner, both converged on the Liverpool skipper and ‘assaulted’ him.  Keegan tried to find Hall to his right but Bremner got hold of the ball and as he attempted to bring the ball out of defence, Hall managed to nick it.  The ball was now loose with both Bremner and Keegan going for it and Keegan’s challenge on Bremner was particularly robust.  The Liverpool striker then continued to chase the ball which now found its way to Giles on the left of the area.  Giles, unaware Keegan was closing him down, played the ball back to Hunter when Keegan grabbed him.  The Irishman instinctively turned round and landed a punch on Keegan.

As Keegan lay prostrate on the ground, Bremner ran over to him to protest at the momento Keegan had left on his knee.  Giles was eventually booked, and the resultant free-kick was played short allowing Lorimer to boot the ball away before Keegan could take a shot.  Keegan was then seen remonstrating with Hunter and McQueen as Bremner appeared to continue their little spat.  Both sets of players attempted to calm their teammates down when referee, Bob Matthewson, called both Keegan and Bremner to him and after a few minutes sent them both off.  Keegan, clearly angered by the whole situation believing he was the innocent party, left the pitch and ripped his shirt off in disgust.  Bremner soon followed, doing the same as both players made their way down the tunnel to derision from the watching public.

Eventually a game continued and ten minutes later Leeds were level when Lorimer’s floated ball into the area was met by the head of Trevor Cherry just as Ray Clemence tried to reach it.  The game finally seemed to come alive as both sides had chances to win it.  With the scores still level after 90 minutes the match went to a penalty shootout.

The first five kicks for each side were perfect as Lorimer, Giles, Gray, Hunter and Cherry scored for Leeds with Lindsay, Hughes, Hall, Smith and Cormack successful for Liverpool.  Inexplicably, the first penalty of the sudden-death phase for Leeds was taken by the keeper, Harvey and he blasted it wide.  Liverpool refused to return the favour and Ian Callaghan stepped up and despite slipping, fired his kick into the roof of the net and Liverpool had won another trophy and for Shankly he had won on his final visit to Wembley.

The aftermath sent shockwaves through English football as various parties put in their opinion over how outraged they were.  Clough was in no doubt who the guilty party was;

“Bremner’s behaviour was scandalous. He seemed intent on making Kevin Keegan’s afternoon an absolute misery.  He kicked him just about everywhere, until it became only a matter of time before a confrontation exploded.”

He went onto add “Keegan was a victim, not a culprit.  I told Bremner afterwards he should pay compensation for the period Keegan was suspended”.

The press was equally scathing in their condemnation.  The Times was particularly angry as Wembley Stadium witnessed two British players sent off for the first time in its illustrious history, describing the removal of their shirts, “shameless”, as they should’ve been “proud to wear them” and singled out Bremner for critisicm as he threw his “petulantly to the ground, where it lay crumpled like a shot seagull until cleared away by a linesman.  It was a disgusting scene”.  They went onto claim “Sadly, Keegan could have been the man of the match.  Leeds patently realised this by half-time and seemed intent on eliminating him by fair means or foul”.

Interestingly, just watching the footage of the immediate build-up to the incident would suggest Keegan was incensed at the treatment of his captain under the hands, or feet, of Giles and Bremner and he sought his own justice.  But later, Tommy Smith gave a little more detail to the event. 

“Leeds had been at Kevin all day.  It was at a corner and Giles came up behind Keegan and whacked him.  Kevin whirled around but Giles had disappeared and Billy was the nearest Leeds player so Kevin went for him.

Ted Croker was especially angry about the fracas, as he’d seen this as an additional showpiece event for The FA to add to the FA Cup Final and League Cup Final.  The build-up was similar to those Finals and back then they were the only two domestic matches televised live.  To say The FA was embarrassed would be an understatement and it’s clear they wanted both clubs punished severely, but the panel which sat on judgement over this included some club managers, including Matt Busby, who were never going to agree to this because of the precedent it could set.  It is very possible the clubs did not share Croker’s view of the match as being any more than an exhibition.

Both players received lengthy bans and a £500 fine but despite calls in the press neither club received sanctions.  Both players were banned for 11 matches and by the time Bremner returned to Leeds, Clough had gone after only 44 days.  Clough was paid-off after his early sacking yet despite his wealth he was demoralised.  Shortly before his death he revealed “I didn’t think it out.  Leeds weren’t for me and I wasn’t for them”, which was probably an understatement.

The whole episode may seem tame by today’s standards but back then a watching television audience had not seen the like, and of course many were concerned with the example being shown to others.  The fact we are less shocked about it all now shows the authorities failed to rein behaviour in. 

Saturday 10^th August 1974, Wembley Stadium, 67,000

LIVERPOOL   (1)   1   (Boersma 19)

LEEDS UNITED   (0)   1   (Cherry 70)

LIVERPOOL: Clemence; Smith, Thompson, Hughes, Lindsay; Callaghan, Hall, Cormack, Heighway; Keegan, Boersma

LEEDS UNITED: Harvey; Reaney, McQueen, Hunter, Cherry; Lorimer, Bremner, Giles, Gray; Clarke (McKenzie), Jordan

Penalties
LIVERPOOL: Lindsay, Hughes, Hall, Smith, Cormack, Callaghan

LEEDS UTD: Lorimer, Giles, Gray, Hunter, Cherry, Harvey (missed)

Quotes – The Guardian, The Times, LFChistory.net, mightyLeeds.co.uk.