Liverpool conversation online has started to feel like walking into a room where everyone’s already mid-row. Not even about the football, half the time. Just anger, indignation, and that constant need to land a sarcastic jab before someone else does.

And to be fair, nobody’s pretending they’re above it. I’ve been drawn into it too. You end up typing something you wouldn’t say face to face, the tone gets sharper with every reply, and then you log off feeling worse for it. Because the truth is, most of us would be sound with each other in the pub. We’d talk about the match, moan a bit, laugh at a moment, and move on. We wouldn’t be obsessed with proving who “cares more” about Liverpool.

Negativity is one thing, sniping is another

There’s a difference between being worried about the direction of the team and just enjoying the fight. Criticism is part of it. Always has been. But the daily trading of insults and sarcastic digs makes the whole place feel heavy. It turns every debate into a loyalty test rather than a football chat.

Worse still is the idea that any tiny bit of positivity must be “gaslighting”, as if saying “there are still good players here” or “this can be fixed” is somehow collaborating in the club losing its identity. That’s when it stops being analysis and starts being theatre. Exhausting theatre.

The two camps, the same noise

What makes it samey is how quickly everyone falls into camps. On one side, the loud insistence that Arne Slot is useless. On the other, the equally loud certainty that he deserves unlimited time because of what he’s done already. Both positions can end up being less about what’s happening on the pitch and more about winning an argument.

Football’s messier than that. Teams can look flat for weeks and then click. Managers can get things wrong and then put them right. Players can be brilliant on Saturday and anonymous the next. That’s the game.

But can we actually solve the on-pitch problems?

One line that always jars is the idea that a fan “knows more about Liverpool” than the manager. Knowing the club, loving the club, living with the club, that’s real. But it’s not the same thing as being the one tasked with fixing pressing distances, sorting the shape out of possession, or getting the team’s tempo right.

Slot is an accredited coach, employed to coach Liverpool and solve problems on the field. So the useful question isn’t “do I know more than him?” It’s: what are the problems we’re seeing, and do we genuinely have better solutions than the staff paid to work on them every day?

Argue it, absolutely. Just maybe with less bile, fewer jibes, and a bit more Liverpool about it.

Written by PatrikBurgher: 10 January 2026

Tags: efl tactics