The Liverpool Way: “Brighton earned the respect of our fans & players last season”

Liverpool away. A tough enough fixture as it is at the best of times, let alone when you visit Anfield to face a rampant Reds outfit flying high after scoring five unanswered goals past Manchester United at Old Trafford six days earlier.

Is there any hope of Brighton shocking Jurgen Klopp and his Redmen on Merseyside for a second season in succession? Who better to speak to than Jason Harris from The Liverpool Way to find out.

Jason had plenty of praise for Graham Potter and the Albion, both for their efforts in securing four points out of six from the Reds in 2020-21 and their flying start to the current campaign.

We also talked about the European Super League, what went wrong with Liverpool’s title defence last time out, whether they can go the distance in what looks like an enthralling three-way title race with Chelsea and Manchester City, and of course Adam Lallana.

It was a trophy less season for Liverpool last time around. Was that something of a disappointment or to be expected due to the hangover of being a relentless winning machine for the previous two seasons?

Definitely a combination of things, many out of our control and some a natural occurrence. Without doubt the pandemic sucked the life out of the game as a whole and hit some clubs harder than others when it came to performance.

As you saw with Manchester City the season prior and Chelsea under Jose Mourinho, sometimes teams just hit a physical wall. They try and try yet something doesn’t click.

With us, losing our three best central defenders within a matter of months is unheard of and certainly psychologically damaging.

Then by looking for a temporary fix, you are creating another problem by taking key players out of their natural position and leaving gaps where they should be in midfield, which of course then affects the forwards. So it was just one big chain reaction.

The atmosphere conjured up by the Liverpool fans without doubt makes the players walk taller. You only have to cite examples such against Borussia Dortmund in 2016 and Barcelona in 2019 where the team have seemingly been in hopeless positions yet are driven on to new heights. There are countless examples of it in the Premier League as well.

Jurgen Klopp lives off the passion, it is one of the factors that makes him the manager he is, so it was clearly evident the soulless atmosphere hit him extremely hard along with the tragic death of his Mother.

It remains one of his great feats with the club that he put all the inner turmoil he must have been feeling to one side and guide us into the top four when for so long it looked out of reach.

The same applies to Alisson regarding the incomprehensible loss of his father. His goal against West Brom and heart breaking interview afterwards where he expressed his raw emotions will be part of club folklore.

You look to be back to your best so far in 2021-22 and most people seem to think it will be a three-way title battle between Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea. How do you see it going?
To be honest I was a bit apprehensive heading into the this season, as we had seen both Manchester clubs and Chelsea invest heavily while our lone purchase was a young defender who was coming to a new league.

We also lost a highly trusted player in Gini Wijnaldum and it was uncertain how the aforementioned three defenders would return to fitness from their serious injuries – and whether the outstanding and tireless front three needed to be refreshed.

So to say I am pleasantly surprised to be where we are placed would be correct. It is not that the talent isn’t there, that is evident, it is just that there were so many unknowns coming in plus the fact that our rivals had gotten better.

Having played our three main title rivals, we have emerged unscathed and in the case of last week, put them firmly in their place.

Both City and Chelsea are very good sides and on their day can destroy a team. If they get on a winning streak, they can be very hard to stop.

Like Klopp, they each have managers and big time players who know what it takes to win the key games, so expecting them to implode is unlikely.

Just like in boxing terms, you just have to go the full 12 rounds and look for the knockout punch at the death. This squad knows what it takes to do just that, they are not called “mentality monsters” for nothing so I will back them in to get the job done, but it is going to be one hell of a battle.

Mo Salah has been unplayable in recent weeks – but who else have been the Reds’ star players so far?

Fair to say I think every player has taken it upon himself to find something extra. They have each had moments in games where they have done something to turn a game.

The two main leaders in Jordan Henderson and James Milner have led from the front in their own understated way, and whilst Salah has been imperious, both Bobby Firmino and Sadio Mane have stepped up and produced greatly improved performances on the previous season.

But if I was going to choose a player that deserves specific recognition it would be Joel Matip. Coming into the season there was debate over who would partner Virgil van Dijk in the heart of the defence with many suggesting that Joe Gomez would be the one, but Matip hasn’t missed a beat.

I will admit I am a unabashed fan of big Joel basically from the moment he came to the club. There is something about him, he has an incredibly laconic nature and is one of the least affected footballers you will find in the world. He just doesn’t buy into all the hype of it all, doesn’t have a social media profile and just gets on with the job at hand.

Just his mannerisms on the pitch are hilarious, he doesn’t care that it looks a bit unorthodox, be it the mazy runs from the heart of defence, the wavy arms or the high stepper march to the referee when he is aggrieved about a decision.

There is a brilliant parody Twitter account called @NoContextJMatip which sums him up perfectly. Even the fact that most pundits criminally underrate him wouldn’t bother him, he will just give a shrug of his shoulders with a nonplussed face.

Matip and Van Dijk are just like peas in a pod, they just work off each other brilliantly and fingers crossed they can stay fit and continue their high standard for the season.

Brighton took four points from Liverpool last season, with the win at the Anfield being particularly memorable for Seagulls supporters. What did you make of those games?

Fair to say we were not at our best in either fixture. The game at the Amex was full of controversy with VAR and a controversial penalty right at the end.

The win you achieved at Anfield was full of merit restricting us to one shot on target while completely outplaying us for large periods. It was a sobering evening as it showed that we were losing any hope of retaining the title.

Being a top team, you have to deal with a lot of different tactics that teams throw at you. Whilst the strugglers in the division have their plans to be as difficult as possible with constant fouling and just slowing the tempo of the game, it isn’t confined to them.

When it comes to playing Liverpool, teams such as Arsenal, Everton and Manchester United throw out any attacking instincts out the window and would take a certainly take a point before kick off.

That is why it has been a breath of fresh air to see teams come up from the Championship in recent seasons like Sheffield United – in their first season at least – Leeds and most recently Brentford who throw all caution to the wind and test us considerably. It is a method that earns respect from the coaching staff, players and us fans alike.

What Graham Potter has done with Brighton is very brave, basically transforming your tried and tested style with seemingly limited resources and the results are evident.

Sure there have been some bumps in the road, but that is bound to happen when you are implementing a new style. He doesn’t seem to care who the opposition is and where the game is played, he sticks to his beliefs.

It just shows you that you don’t have to have a glittering resume in the modern game to have a progressive mindset and be able to work your way up to the top. It is great to see and long may it continue.

Adam Lallana is proving to be a popular figure down at the Amex. What sort of reception can he expect from the Anfield faithful?

‘Ads’ as is he is affectionately known will get a great reception. In the difficult early days of Jurgen’s tenure, Lallana was arguably his most trusted player.

He really caught on with the tactics quicker than any other player and led from the front making many valuable contributions. It is not a stretch to say that the 2015-16 season was his best in Liverpool colours and sadly his constant injuries undoubtedly restricted him from showing his true potential.

Whilst in later years when more quality and competition for spots came into the fore, he never dropped his head or caused a fuss behind the scenes and his equaliser at Old Trafford in October 2019 – his last goal for the club – was testament of that.

A true professional until the very end and expect Jurgen to give him a big bear hug at the end.

Sorry, we have to ask about it… what did Liverpool fans make of their club’s ill-fated attempt last April to form the European Super League?

Trying to forget that sorry saga even happened! It was basically the exclamation point on the season from hell. The fact that the club was shown to be one of the chief instigated was bad enough, but the fact that Jurgen and the players were completely kept in the dark over the plans was incredibly unforgivable.

If there is one thing that you come to learn about Jurgen, it is that he is a incredibly passionate man and a football purist and he will stick to that ethos until the day he retires from the game. He certainly won’t be compromised and ‘sell out’ to any “pie in the sky” ideas in any shape or form.

Unlike former managers, he never gets involved in club politics or slam the owners for lack of funds, but his statement in the case of the Super League was damning in its succinctness and clarity in what he thought of the proposal.

In such a tough year on and off pitch, there was a real fear that it was the straw that broke the camels back. We had climbed the mountain in a number of competitions and Jurgen had put his heart and soul into every aspect of the evolution under his tenure.

He was a broken man, so his statement in the days following that he was not going anywhere was a massive relief to say the least.

But all in all it was a major black mark against these owners and whilst the more sympathetic within the fanbase will forgive, the large majority will not forget.

If you had to give Graham Potter some advice to getting another result at Anfield this weekend, what would it be?

Don’t try to complicate things, just stick to your principles and see how it goes. It is easy to say ‘shut down Salah’ but you do that and someone like Mane is just as likely to bob up. That is the benefit of having more than one outlet. So the main thing is to aim and keep it as tight at the back as possible.

I am really looking forward to seeing Tariq Lamptey after his long injury absence. He had a great game against us after the Covid resumption in 2019-20 at the Amex, giving young Neco Williams all kind of headaches.

So depending on what team Potter selects, he could be a different option to last time the two teams met.

Finally, your prediction please
It will be a really hard fought contest. The crowd will be in fantastic spirits on the back of the result last week, but that will be put to one side by the 11 players on the pitch as they will know that they have to be at their very best.

I’ll go for a hard fought 2-0 victory with both goals scored in the last 20 minutes.

Thanks to Jason for answering our questions. You can follow Jason on Twitter and keep up with all things Liverpool by following The Liverpool Way on Twitter.