An article by Jim Boardman, editor of www.anfieldroad.com, reproduced from
The Telegraph
on January 1st 2011. You can follow Jim on Twitter at @jimboardman
Liverpool's results this season are now so bad that they're being compared to the days before
Bill Shankly arrived and revolutionised the club.
Liverpool 1 Man United 3, January 30, 1960
You've got to love the Scousers. When Liverpool were drawn at home to Manchester United in the
4th round of the FA Cup in January 1960 it was immediately declared an all-ticket match, naturally
enough as United had already attracted the two largest league attendances of the season, despite
being in the bottom half of the table.
"Football isn't a matter of life and death, it's much more important than that," is a quote often
attributed to Bill Shankly, the legendary manager of Liverpool FC. As exaggerations go, this one
gets pretty close to the truth. Millions of fans identify intensely with the highs and lows of
their favourite sports team, perhaps a modern substitute for the tribal loyalties of bygone days.
Mike Bassett: ‘Ladies and Gentlemen: England will be playing Four-Four-Two!'
If you think of it, watching a football match and a film can be very similar experiences: In
both cases it is possible to laugh, cry and be terrified all in the space of 90 minutes! So do
football and film go well together?
Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish is keen for the club to rediscover the style of their glory days
— as it is the only way he knows how to play football.
The success of the late 1970s and through the 1980s was built on the pass-and-move doctrines
instigated by Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley.
Dalglish flourished as a player in those teams and tried to continue the legacy in his first spell
as manager.
Maybe, just maybe, Alan Pardew, having now been in the passionate world of Newcastle United for
several weeks, is letting that passion get to him but in a good way. Maybe John Carver is already
having a big influence on Alan? One of our big heroes of the past was Bill Shankly, the great [...]
