I took it for granted back in the day, but it was a privilege being stood on the Kop during this era. Everything felt up close and personal and you felt like you were part of a big family - unlike the sanitized stadiums of today.
Unfortunately this was the beginning of the end for Ray Kennedy the Northeast powerhouse had been a revelation in the Liverpool team and the main reason they were so successful over a number of years it’s a shame illness was starting to take hold in my opinion he was the player of the 70s won absolutely everything
Absolutely superb stuff. Remember listening to Sport on 2’s second half commentary on this match. Interesting observations from Jimmy Hill about the team lacking pace in wide areas in the absence of Steve Heighway. I suppose we had to wait another six years for a comparable replacement, in John Barnes, but Bob Paisley solved the problem in a different way just weeks later with the introduction of Whelan and Rush.
@@andymacfaul2852 it wasn't an "issue" for Paisley. I adored Heighway, but the only two big players we had problems replacing were Keegan (immediately sorted) and Souness - which after 2 years we realised would never be sorted.
@@stel3209 I think basically we agree! Paisley dealt with the matter very effectively. And yes, the one player we could never replace was Souness. Or, we realised we needed at least two players (McMahon for the bite and Molby for the passing range) to come close to his degree of influence.
Well done Dave-another gem from your vast trove. Great game at Anfield with Reds taking on a quite capable Villa side. Fine goalkeeping from Jimmy Rimmer. Good coverage with Jimmy Hill and John Motson.
Ray Kennedy was sent off against Arsenal in a league cup game a few months after this match I think, and Ronnie Whelan took his place, and the number 5 shirt.
I think his sudden aggression was a sign that something was wrong with him. I think he also got into a brawl in a hotel in North Wales around that time as well (and a midfielder also on his way out pee'd on a nurse).
Good game to watch around this time is England v Brazil June 1981 on YT. McDermott and Peter Barnes were good and Withe started to cause them some problems (he seemed to be nullified here). Always thought Peter Barnes was useful - could have made something of him. He was only 24 in 1981. Maybe a good replacement for Heighway. It was that Brazil 1982 team minus Falcao which is my favourite team. Eder's shot is worth the entrance money alone. Kenny and Zico so similar at times although Zico was quicker. Zico was the best player in the world. It is sad they never won that world cup. Lawrenson said he couldn't get near Zico in the world club game later in 1981 - the best player he ever played against. The travel was used as the reason for being 3-0 down at half time v Flamengo but they were just outclassed. Zico exposed the high backline.
I remember it well, plus the Wembley match. Liverpool were a machine, relentless, playing with pace and precision and quite a bit of edge. Flamengo were on a different level in Tokyo but Europe had no answer to what was essentially today's fitness levels and better technique.
0-0 draw but still highly entertaining. Reminds me why the 70s and 80s Liverpool team is so much better to watch than modern teams. Just as "technical" and "good on the ball", but without fannying around with endless boring short sideways passes just for the sake of possession. The passing was more purposeful and incisive, always aiming to create chances. In addition, the whole team was lethal at shooting from long range (e.g. Phil Neal the right-back having a smash from 40-odd yards), and that forced the opposition to be on-guard against that threat, which in turn opened things up for incisive passes to teammates who'd been left in more space.
Was thinking about your comment v Madrid. A couple of times a quick ball forward on a breaking would have put Madrid on the back foot but the players are encouraged to hold it and be patient. Sigh
Another thing that grinds my gears about modern footy - why cant goalscorers just be happy in celebration? The 'shhh' and the cup your ear celebration has been done for 25 years now. Should be an automatic sending off.
You know this isn't true. The lack of diet and drinking culture with the pre-historic tactical set ups mean that if the teams of the 80's were magically transported to modern day they'd get utterly destroyed. The technical levels were a lot lower as well, no foreign players with any technical ability. We saw when Liverpool came up against flamengo how they were utterly outplayed in the intercontinental cup, contrast that with 2019 when Liverpool beat them. Remember when Kenny came back tried to play a 4-4-2 with a big man up top, he got sacked within one season.
@@musayibghani3986 I know that the quality of shooting, dribbling and intricate team passing/movement exhibited by Liverpool teams of the 70s and 80s surpasses any modern sideways safe-percentage 3-yard-passing "west-coast offense" rubbish! But all people like you do is refer endlessly and dogmatically to the mythical "technical levels" of the modern game, as if proving a point merely by using that simple phrase again and again! A one-off international friendly against Flamengo (in the midst of a busy competitive schedule) doesn't demonstrate anything very conclusive (and, in any case, Brazilian teams of that era, like Liverpool, were representative of football at its best). The eat-and-drink-whatever-you-wish diet of the 70s/80s was not necessarily worse than rigid, dogmatic, supposedly "enlightened" more recent dietary regimes that (e.g.) have players adhering to a very precise one-size-fits-all intake of water, and that seem to result in many ex-players looking 10-20 years older than their actual age within just 5-10 years of retirement. I wasn't paying attention to what was happening when Kenny came back as manager for a bit a decade or so ago, but a "4-4-2 with a big man up top" doesn't sound at all like the Liverpool of the late 80s, even if the theoretical formation was the same.
@@of_doom_and_steel477 The quality of the shooting/passing/dribbling wasn't better back then, they just had way more space. Look at the amount of room the teams had back in the 80's, could literally turn look up and play a pass under no pressure. Liverpool's training in the 80's literally consisted of 5 a side's no tactical work whatsoever, former players said they didn't do any tactics literally rock up and play 5v5s. You can't honestly tell me that drinking 30 pints and having fish and chips is conducive to athletic performance, the game was so slow compared to today. I say technical levels are better because academies and youth set ups are far more rigorous in their selection process, to be selected you'd have to be really good. Every other athletic venture training and performance have got better over time, makes no sense to say that footballers have less ability than they did in the 80s. Fergie was so successful cause he adapted to the modern game, even when souness came back to Liverpool he'd realised the importance of diet and nutrition.
Andy McFaul has made my point for me that we didn’t get another Steve Heighway at the time but Ronnie Whelan’s talent and sheer energy in his earlier years and Ian Rush’s pace did the job in the second half of that season. Good point also below about Phil Neal. Even with this era we have nowadays of wingbacks, I’ve never seen a better attacking pair of attacking full-backs than him and Alan Kennedy. Neal’s crosses might not have been as good as Trent’s but his surging runs and combinations with Case/ McDermott/ Lee and his finishing were years ahead; has to be admitted Jimmy Case and Sammy Lee did a lot of covering for him as did Ray Kennedy for Alan.
@@randyborstol2491 He was in direct competition with Ronnie Whelan for Ray Kennedy's slot in midfield. Two good players to have coming up from the ranks.
How would you like to be, A Scouser in Gay Paris, Walking along on the banks of the Seine, Winning the European Cup once again. We'll go up the Eiffel Tower, And stay up there half an hour, Cos we won't be too late, When we celebrate, We're the Scousers in Gay Paris. We'll visit the Follies Bergere, They like to see Scousers there, The woman are lovely, With skin like a peach, But they'll never move it like Kenny Dalglish. How would you like to be. A Scouser in Gay Paris.
