Unity Is Liverpool’s Real Winning Edge

Winning football matches is about so much more than what happens on a tactics board. Shape, press, automatisms, all of that matters, but I’m not convinced it’s ever been the whole story at Liverpool. Not when we’re at our best, anyway.

For me, Klopp understood that better than most. He didn’t just pick a team, he built a group. The important bit there is the word “group”, because it never felt like it was only about the starting XI. Players on the fringes still looked like they mattered. There was a sense that everyone had a role, even if their minutes were limited.

Klopp and the Shankly “holy trinity”

There’s a reason Shankly’s line still lands all these years later: the manager, the players, the supporters. It’s not just a nice quote for a mural. It’s basically the club’s operating system when things are going well.

Under Klopp, that unity didn’t stay locked inside the dressing room either. It spilled into the stands. You could feel it at Anfield, even on nights when the football wasn’t perfect. The crowd weren’t just watching Liverpool, they were with them.

The rough spells mattered, because of how they were handled

And it’s not like everything was always sunshine. 2022-23 was grim at times, and you could sense the strain. But the point is how it was dealt with. When there was friction, adversity or disappointment, it felt like it got addressed. Quickly. Nothing festered long enough to turn into something poisonous.

That’s the bit I worry can get undervalued when we talk about football like it’s a spreadsheet. You can carry an off day tactically. You can carry a clunky performance. It’s much harder to carry a fractured squad for any length of time.

Alisson at West Brom and what it actually meant

If you want one snapshot of what togetherness looks like, go back to Alisson’s header against West Brom in 2020-21. Look at the celebration. Not the technique, not the set-up, just the reaction from the lads. Pure emotion. Pure relief. A shared moment that was bigger than “three points”.

That’s what I mean when I say it’s about more than football. Those moments don’t come out of nowhere. They come from a squad that’s pulling in the same direction.

I get the impression Arne Slot sees chemistry and unity as part of success, but maybe not the main driver of it. Klopp, to me, treated it like the foundation. And whoever’s in that dugout long-term has to understand the same thing: unity is strength. Up the Reds, always.

Written by Richie Red: 21 January 2026