ONE might expect Pitch Publishing to be based in Liverpool, such is much of their portfolio for this year, but it’s actually a Sussex house.
No jibes necessary – they also feature Everton strongly, and Celtic, as well as other sports, notably cricket.
Yet the Reds of Anfield feature heavily in their 2020 catalogue, unsurprisingly, given the club’s recent successes, notably ending a 30-year wait to be champions of England again.
Ivan Butler concludes his ‘Liverpool Matches of My Life’ with the winning of a different title, explained by the book’s sub-title: ‘From Second Division to World Champions’. Covering almost fully six decades, from the ‘Return to the Top Flight’ by beating Southampton in April 1962, to that victory over Brazil’s Flamengo to become ‘World Champions, the author re-visits 50 matches in his 50 chapters.
That last one was less than a year ago, yet Butler will surely have to include some games from 2020 in an expanded second edition.
For now, Liverpool supporters can re-live the happy memories recalled, games many will recognise simply from the chapter titles, with no need for a year or a scoreline: ‘Ee Aye Addio, We Won the Cup’, ‘First European Trophy’, ‘Supersub’, ‘Kevin Who?’, ‘Brucie’s Wobbly Legs’, ‘Newcastle Get the Collywobbles’, ‘McAllister’s Golden Show’, ‘The Gerrard Final’, ‘The Miracle of Anfield’, ‘Ol’ Big Ears is Back’…
Football fans being football fans, there’s also the scope to argue about the games which absolutely ‘should’ have been included. Always next year…
//////////////////////////
Lee Scott provides a very different book for Pitch Publishing in ‘King Klopp: Rebuilding the Liverpool Dynasty’. An experienced football scout and opposition analyst, Scott looks at the evolving tactics deployed by the German boss who has transformed the Reds from nearly men to ‘mentality monsters’, winning the Champions League, Club World Cup, and Premier League along the way.
This book includes 87 graphics, most of them full page representations of players’ positioning on the pitch, but it never seems like a technical manual; all the concepts are explained clearly and concisely without lapsing into jargon or obscure terminology.
Scott also assesses the individual qualities of certain key players: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, and – of course – Roberto Firmino. There’s also a consideration of the enigma that is Naby Keita, with Scott firmly of the belief that injuries are the only ‘flaw’ in the Guinean’s game.
With chapters on ‘Defenders in possession’, ‘The importance of the 6’, ‘Pressing as a playmaker’, ‘Functional Midfield’, and ‘False Wingers’, Scott provides a detailed and fascinating overview of the team that Klopp built.
///////////////////////////////
Bob Holmes argues that some of the credit for recent success must go way back, to a man who passed away almost four decades ago. In ‘Shanks, Yanks…and Jurgen’ (Pitch Publishing) – subtitled ‘The Men Behind Liverpool’s Rise Again’ - he contends that the current Liverpool FC manager is following in the philosophies of a famed predecessor, the one and only Bill Shankly.
Klopp would certainly have admired Shanks the player, who described himself thus: ‘I was a socialist football player. I did everything. I gave 100 per cent. I was different, I was single-minded.’
As managers they are similar too, with their emphasis on workrate and, just as importantly, creating unity from the ‘Holy Trinity’ of players, manager, and supporters, an act of faith initially but then put into practice to bring earthly rewards.
Yet this is not a hagiography; Holmes points out that both bosses, despite their socialist mindsets, spent big on transfer fees at times.
‘The Yanks’ are the current owners, headed by John W Henry, who rescued the club from the disastrous situation two other Americans, the infamous Hicks and Gillett, had sunk it into.
Holmes, a former sports writer with The Observer and Evening Standard among other papers, offers an overview of more than a century, from Shankly’s Glenbuck birth to Liverpool’s renaissance under Klopp.
//////////////////////////////////////////////
‘Liverpool Minute by Minute’ (Pitch Publishing) sounds like it could be a humungous compendium but in fact it’s slim enough to be perfect for ‘the smallest room’ – which, as all avid readers know, is quite the compliment.
The concept is clever: in around 250 pages it covers more than 500 important incidents in the history of the Reds in the minute in order of the minute in which they were scored. Goals aplenty, obviously, including the first and the fastest in various competitions, but also penalties, red cards, and other moments worth recalling, from the first minute to the last, plus added time, extra time, and even a few penalty shoot-outs.
Author David Jackson, an experienced sports journalist, writes clearly and concisely in a format which would work well for many clubs.
//////////////////////////
The literal ‘first name on the team-sheet’, the goalkeeper, isn’t always given the credit he deserves, even by managers, with acclaim much more often directed towards goal-scorers.
‘Applauding the Kop’ (Pitch Publishing) by Paul Wilkes (subtitled ‘The Story of Liverpool Football Club’s Goalkeepers’) goes a good way to rectifying that.
The title is a nod to the Kop’s tradition of welcoming visiting keepers, but this is about the Reds’ number ones. Our own Elisha Scott is obviously mentioned but the focus is mostly on the modern era.
The famous names are there, of course: the late, great Ray Clemence, his predecessor Tommy Lawrence (‘The Flying Pig’), Clem’s controversial successor Bruce Grobbelaar,
Fittingly, though, for book about a position that is often overlooked, Wilkes also tells the stories of Tony Warner, Michael Stensgaard, Pegguy Arphexad, Scott Carson, and Danny Ward. Even Martin Hansen and Peter Gulacsi, neither of whom made a single first team appearance for the Reds, get their own chapters, with interesting insights into their time at Anfield.
The book concludes with the work of John Achterberg, the club’s goalkeeping coach, who has overseen many of those, working under five different managers, and offers insight into the transition from Simon Mignolet and Loris Karius to the brilliant Brazilian Alisson Becker.
