Possession For Possession’s Sake Isn’t Liverpool

Watching it in the ground, it felt like Liverpool were playing within themselves. Plenty of the ball, not much bite, and a nagging sense the risk has been coached out of them.

I was at the match with my lad and we walked out with the same feeling: that performance had the air of something overly managed. Not just a bad day at the office, but a plan that felt negative in a way Liverpool rarely should be, especially at Anfield.

The frustrating bit is it’s not like this squad is short of footballers. There are good players all over the pitch. But when the instruction seems to be “keep it at all costs”, you can almost see the hesitation. The extra touch. The safe pass back inside. The moment where you’d normally try the ball in behind and instead recycle it and wait for a perfect opening that never quite arrives.

Keeping the ball is fine, but what’s it for?

Possession can be a weapon, of course it can. Control the tempo, pin teams back, stop transitions. We’ve all watched top sides do it and make it look ruthless. The problem is when it becomes possession for possession’s sake. You end up with a lot of the match happening in front of the opposition, rather than to them.

Liverpool at our best have always had an edge: win it, go. Quick decisions, runners trusted, full-backs flying, chaos created on purpose. Even when it was messy, it was honest. It asked questions. This sort of approach, by contrast, can leave the front line starving and the crowd waiting for something that never comes.

The fear is the risk has been coached out

That’s where the worry comes in. The fan in me can accept an off day, even a poor result, if it looks like we’re trying to impose ourselves. What’s harder to take is a style that feels timid. You start thinking: are the players being told not to gamble? Not to play that early pass? Not to commit bodies because losing the ball is treated like the worst sin?

Truth is, this club has lived on intensity and bravery. Sometimes it ends 4-3, sometimes it ends in chaos, but you feel like Liverpool have had a proper go. At home in particular, that’s the bargain: entertain, attack, make teams hate coming here.

Anfield mood matters more than people admit

There’s another part to it that you can’t ignore if you’re actually in the ground. You can sense the crowd getting restless when the football turns into sideways patterns with no punch. It doesn’t take long for groans to creep in, and once that starts it can become a loop: the team play safe because it feels tense, and it feels tense because the team play safe.

No one’s asking for mindless football. Just a bit of ambition. A bit of risk. If Arne Slot wants Liverpool to be a controlled side, fine, but it still has to look like Liverpool. Otherwise it’s going to feel flat, and that’s when the noise really starts.

Written by conslfc: 9 January 2026