I Love The Smell of Pre-Season In The Morning
Liverpool are back...
Ahh… pre-season, the most wonderful time of the football calendar! Where transfer speculation and new season optimism meet in an orgy of underwhelming footy, mass substitutions and odd kick off times.
I fear that I might be making it sound crap, which by the lofty standards of the season itself, of course it is. However, please don’t mistake my playful barbs for anything deeper, because, can I shock you? I like pre-season. Love it in fact. I love the mad XI’s and the cooling breaks, and the goalkeepers being played outfield (love you Pepe), and all the youth players getting hyped up (Dani Pacheco fan 4 life), and the gleaning of fresh tactical tidbits, the mad grounds and of course the first looks at the new boys. Case in point, I was there in the baking Chester sunshine in 2018, watching the debuting Fabinho casually drift back between the centre backs; a fascinating tactical shift that sparked much debate in the stands. Okay so, yeah, it turned out to be him not understanding what Jurgen wanted from his DM rather than a fresh new take on the role, but still. That match though, for those without an encyclopedic knowledge of these glorified training games, took place at the same time as England’s World Cup Quarter Final against Sweden.
If you think I’m going to use watching a low paced Liverpool pre-season game against non-league opposition over an actual proper England game at a major international tournament as some sort of badge of honour… Well yeah, you’d be dead right.
Of course, from a working perspective, pre-season presents numerous opportunities that simply don’t exist otherwise. Namely, travel to other countries, meeting fans from other cultures (tailgating in American stadia car parks is the absolute business), a fractional amount access to players (god bless mixed zones!) and occasionally the manager (I got a high five from Jurgen Klopp after that Chester game), and, increasingly importantly, a delightful lack of stakes.
(A handshake from Klopp. A Kloppshake?)
Football has never been bigger. The stakes have never been higher. Every kick is hyperscrutinised, because with each kick there rests the potential difference in millions of pounds, whilst off the pitch, a week’s worth of happiness for Liverpool’s ever growing global fanbase hangs in the balance. Mood begats mood. A draw feels like a defeat, amplified by the online echo chamber. Now to be clear, pre-season games are not truly without stake, not anymore, or at least not anymore in perception.
I have this distinct memory from childhood of us getting a copy of the Daily Mirror on holiday, which in the 90’s in Spain was always a day late. In the back, a few pages in was a tiny side column with a bunch of pre-season football scores. Liverpool’s was listed. Score only. Not even the names of who scored the goals. That night we rang my uncle back home who filled the blanks by reading the Liverpool Echo’s slightly more detailed report. And by ‘the blanks’, I mean the goalscorers. Possibly with a little detail on how they scored. That was it. He hadn’t even seen the game. The game was not televised anywhere.
Liverpool won, oooh, the new signing scored, that’s exciting isn’t it? Right then, back to the sun loungers son!
For comparison, Liverpool’s pre-season games these days are either picked up by global broadcasters (In 2019 I watched ESPN’s coverage as the Reds lost to Dortmund in Indiana, jet lagged to all hell from a hotel room in Boston), or shown on LFC TV, often with all the bells and whistles of a normal game (studio build up, graphics, two commentators, etc). Beyond that, the analysis has gone through the roof too. Last summer, Sofascore’s in app coverage came with full Opta stats data for the games AND heatmaps for each player on the pitch. Yes, you too could study Nat Phillips’ heatmap for the 0-0 Anfield draw against Las Palmas. What a time to be alive!
In producing Redmen over the years, I’ve come to notice not so much a shift in stakes, as a shift in perspective of the stakes. It’s one of the things about the modern game that I've struggled to square away, finding myself baffled year after year by the torrent of online misery that meets pre-season defeats. Glorified training sessions, players featuring on the back of double fitness training, mismatched XI’s of youth and fringe, often missing the big boys on international duty, and with match flow interrupted by substitutions numbering in the double figures, or in some cases two entirely different XI’s per half PLUS subs. We’ve been here before though, right? Surely we all know this shit by now? Perhaps not it seems.
Which brings me back to perspective. For fans of my generation, who remember the dear old days of Uncle Tommy’s crackly match report dictactions, the chance to get a glimpse of these games is, what? A privilege? Maybe that’s too strong. A bonus then? Yeah, a peek behind the curtain, a grandiose, well produced peek sure, but certainly not the proper stuff.
There was an interim point with all this too, where the mid to late 2000’s saw several of these games televised by TV stations in Europe, with foreign commentary, zero analysis and accessible only by the almighty “dodgy satellite box”. The era of trawling local pubs trying to find one who A) Had the equipment, and B) Could actually find the correct channel. This is in fact how I witnessed Pepe Reina’s infamous outfield performance against Kaiserslautern. The added wrinkle being that I was managing the pub in question, and the responsibility of finding the random European Eurosport variant fell to me.
So, anyway, it’s all different now, better even, at least theoretically. Now it’s on your TV at home, it’s on your laptop browser, it’s on your phone. Those bonus, fun, extra, stress free games have never been easier to access. So, to hit a cultural reference right at its zeitgeist, “Why So Serious?”
I spend every summer turning this one over in my head, and the best I can fathom is thus, which I'll pose in wordy question form.
“If you watch all Liverpool games on your laptop, from Merseyside Derby, to Champions League Final, to Nat Phillips heatmap-tastic Las Palma’s draws, and it all looks the same; It has packed stadiums full of cheering fans, a full team of studio pundits analysing it, post match interviews, press conferences, highlights packages, Mo Salah AND a full suite of data to pour through… what’s the difference between a crunch semi final, a title decider and a nothing pre-season sweat fest? It’s all Liverpool right?”
What I’m driving at here, is do people actually realise that it doesn’t matter? Because the way it’s being presented to the viewer certainly doesn’t back up that sentiment.
And of course, there’s the fear. The fear sewn by the media that everything is all or nothing. A fear fertilised by the dominance of Man City where just to compete required weekly perfection. Throw in a dash of heroic hyperbolic bollocks, like “every game should matter when you play for Liverpool.” and voila, the perfect cocktail for stress. Forget that the 25 lads who just played have been legged all day in a different time zone by the manager, and that half of them are lads who will probably never get beyond a handful of League Cup 3rd round appearances. This is all an important barometer for how the season ahead is going to go. Bad pre-season = SHIT ACTUAL SEASON.
Ahem… No.
Well, maybe… But I’ll give you a great example of when this sort of (ever spreading attitude) was defo total nonsense. It’s one that sticks vividly in my mind because it features prominently at the start of my second published Liverpool season book: “Champions of Everything.” The season in question was 2018/19. Liverpool, the then reigning European Champions embarked upon a tour of North America. The mood was impeccable, we were the Unbearables and we set about letting the world know it.
We lost 3-2 to Borussia Dortmund in Notre Dame. The next day, we played Sevilla at Fenway Park and lost 2-1. Four days later we shared the highly coveted Western Union Cup with a Bruno Fernandes inspired Sporting at Yankee Stadium. Another four days later, upon returning to the UK, we lost 3-0 to Napoli at Murrayfield in Edinburgh. All of this was set against the backdrop of transfer induced (or LACK of transfer induced) social media that was frothing with negativity. How can the Reds be expected to compete for the league without signings? We NEED to be building from a position of strength, etc, etc.
Context however is always king. So here’s a bunch of it for that particular run.
Dortmund: Liverpool started with Yasser Larouci at left back and a front 3 of Ryan Kent, Harry Wilson and Divock Origi (who were subbed for Curtis Jones, Ben Woodburn and Rhian Brewster (who scored a banger of a pen).
Sevilla: Andy Lonergan started in goal and the game ended with Adam Lewis, Ki-Jana Hoever, Ryan Kent and Rhian Brewster on the pitch. It also saw Gnagnon sent off for a horror tackle on substitute Larouci who was in turn subbed off for, wait for it… Bobby Duncan! Remember him???
Sporting: This game was preceded by fans from Carraghers’s Bar in New York organising an open top bus parade of a replica Champions League trophy through the streets of Manhattan. My video review of this game was titled “GINI FANTASTIC ON THE WING.” (another of those fascinating pre-season tactical insights!). Liverpool’s team was the strongest yet (Oxlade-Chamberlain, Origi and yes, Gini in the front three). Bruno Fernandes’ opening goal was assisted by Simon Mignolet.
Napoli. Jamie Webster played Allez Allez Allez on the stadium roof. Klopp named the same team that started four days and 3,000 miles earlier against Sporting. However, Van Den Berg, Hoever, Elliott, Lewis, Duncan (!!), Wilson and Brewster all ended it.
“Perhaps the most underwhelming trophy celebration in history. Compare that with the Champions League Final and remind yourself… that it’s only pre-season”
Me. July 2019, Yankee Stadium.
Additional Context:
Liverpool paraded the Champions League trophy on June 2nd. The first pre-season game took place on July 7th, less than five weeks later.
AFCON had been moved to the summer in 2019, meaning that Naby Keita, Mo Salah and Sadio Mane were all unavailable. Sadio, who won the competition with Senegal, would not be available for selection until the first game of the Premier League season- where he came on as a sub in the 74th minute. Just in time to play in (and win) the Super Cup v Chelsea in Istanbul.
Copa America also took place this summer, meaning that Alisson and Bobby Firmino were also unavailable.
Three days later, Liverpool wrapped up pre-season on the 31st of July with a game against Lyon in Geneva. Fresh (or at least very warm) from their Copa America victory, Alisson and Firmino returned to the starting XI, alongside Naby Keita and Mo Salah as we romped to a fun times abounding 3-1 victory just in time for the kick off of the new campaign. Spirits soared once again! A timely reminder that if you put fitter, better players into a Liverpool side they will be more likely to win. Okay, we then lost to City on pens in the Community Shield, BUT look at what followed! It’s in the title of the book, EV-ER-Y-THING. The Reds won the Super Cup, the Club World Cup (when it was uncool, or at least less well financed) and ended the 30 year wait for the League title. AND we “only” signed Adrian. I’ll spare you the ranting about transfer expectations for another day (and possibly another year based on the rampant business so far).
Now look, I’m sat here berating people for their yearly blinkered fact free misery, when I am also 100% convinced, without any sort of research, that you can’t have a great season unless you win your first game. So take this all with a pinch of salt, but also, in summary, just try to enjoy it. The daft XI’s and the mad stadia and the raging river of child substitutes. It’s all Liverpool baby. Liverpool you can watch and learn from and squeeze enjoyment from without all the stress and hassle of it having to “Mean More”. For me it’s a bit like discovering your favourite band has a bootleg album full of mad covers, outtakes and acoustic versions of classics. Yeah sure the sound quality is sketchy and the production values are shaky at best, but it might be fun to see (hear) how the sausage gets made, and who knows? There may even be some absolute bangers in there.
I don’t know about you, but I love it, wholeheartedly.
Paul
Note:
The passing of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva has obviously cast a huge, painful shadow over the club, and it would be remiss of me not to mention it here. A week on from the news and personally I’m still struggling to wrap my head around the whole thing. As it stands, Liverpool are planning to press on with pre-season plans, beginning with a trip to Preston (on Sunday 13th). For now, I’m not really ready to dive back into the usual raft of footy content, either here, on Maych TV or Redmen TV. The whole thing still feels far too raw, and I haven’t got any desire to get back to banter or transfer stuff. As such, my broad plan is to ease back in, and try to create content that is more light hearted, fun and hopefully spreads a little bit of positivity. I do genuinely love pre-season, so i’ll probably do a few bits here and on the Youtube channel about that, favourite memories, predictions, that sort of thing.
Lastly, if you haven’t already (and it’s possible for you to do so) I would highly recommend a visit to Anfield to see the tributes left by fans. I took my son Jack last weekend and though it was tough (and obviously very emotional), seeing the sheer scale of the various offerings really helped me.
YNWA