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.
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.
