John Aldridge has empathised with Liverpool fans who booed at the full-time whistle of the 1-1 draw against Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield on Sunday, even though he didn’t particularly like it.
After Richarlison’s 90th-minute equaliser resulted in two more dropped points for the Reds in their stuttering pursuit of Champions League qualification, the final whistle was greeted with jeers from many in attendance as supporters’ patience ran thin.
In his latest column for the Liverpool Echo, the former LFC striker said that the audible displeasure at the end of yesterday’s match was the result of many months of pent-up frustration in a season which has lurched from one disappointment to the next.
Aldridge wrote: ‘A fair amount has been made about the booing at full-time on Sunday. I’ve been supporting Liverpool for more than 50 years and I still hate to hear the players being jeered at full-time, but you can understand it.
‘It has been a culmination of what the home fans have had to put up with at Anfield for much of the season. There hasn’t been a lot of enjoyment for anyone involved.’
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Arne Slot acknowledged after the game that the full-time booing was ‘understandable’, while Dominik Szoboszlai pleaded with fans not to leave the stadium early, having noticed many supporters exiting Anfield several minutes before Richarlison equalised.
Liverpool’s match-going supporters are generally very slow to turn on their team, even when things are going terribly on the pitch, but yet another failure to win at home to a side in the bottom six of the Premier League proved the tipping point for a lot of the natives on Sunday.
Throughout the game there was an eerie atmosphere in L4, almost as if it were an end-of-season affair with nothing at stake, but another slow, tepid performance from the Reds didn’t exactly give the fans much reason to whip up a frenzy in the stands.
We fully agree with Aldridge – booing your own team is never particularly nice, but it wasn’t exactly unjustified either. Supporters’ patience is wearing increasingly thin after several months of near-constant disappointment.
Hopefully there’ll be a more raucous vibe at Anfield for the visit of Galatarasay on Wednesday, and for the remaining home fixtures this season. A unified front between fans and players is what’s needed in the final weeks of the campaign with the stakes being so high for the club.
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Boring football is turning fans away. If we play exciting football, I’m sure the fans will stay till the end to applaud the team. We are playing against a team fighting relegation, similar to forest but after leading 1-0, we cannot increase the scoreline and slot brings on jones and plays to not lose. Look at our goal difference, this could be crucial in the fight for ucl.
Good analysis from Carragher on Liverpool on Monday night football, and why we are struggling. About the lack of pressing, lack of physicality and how disorganised we are without the ball. Compared to what we had under klopp.
We have arguably better players but are not a team. When klopp was manager the pressing game didn’t just happen it was drilled and coached on the training ground. When you press if one player presses it won’t work, it has to be organised and timed, it comes from manager. Looking at the game again yesterday there were gaps everywhere, again, POORLY organised without the ball is down to the coaching.
It’s the job of a manager or coach to implement and intrigate new players into a system that works, this is the biggest failure from slot. Most managers in the premier league would have given anything to have the talent slot was given in the summer. 450 million and look like a Brendan Rodgers team. Liverpool supporters very rarely boo the manager at Anfield, when they do you know that we need change.
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