Ange Postecoglou admits he was ‘obsessed’ with Liverpool
· Yahoo Sports
Childhood devotion shaped by Dalglish magic
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There are footballers you admire, and there are footballers who colonise your imagination. For Ange Postecoglou, Liverpool were not merely a club across the world but a weekly ritual, a shared language with his father, a belief system forged in red and white. The Australian coach admitted simply: “I was Liverpool mad, right? I was Liverpool obsessed.”
It began, as these things often do, with a hero. When Kenny Dalglish arrived at Anfield in 1977, replacing Kevin Keegan and ushering in another Liverpool dynasty, the young Postecoglou felt something shift. “When Kenny came in ’77, it went to another level for me,” he said. That was Dalglish’s effect. He made the complicated look inevitable, the brilliant look effortless, and children in Glasgow, Sydney or Sefton Park felt they had witnessed something sacred.
Dalglish’s Liverpool were not just winners; they were craftsmen. They played with poise, patience and menace. They made football feel like poetry written with studs and laces. That is how obsession begins.
Anfield promise carried into Premier League career
Football’s beauty lies in its capacity to connect time. A boy staring at a poster grows into a manager pacing the Anfield touchline, still hearing echoes of the Kop. Postecoglou described arriving early for his first visit as a Premier League manager, wanting a private moment beneath the famous sign.
“I promised myself… I’m going to walk through the tunnel beneath the sign just for my dad… to say we kind of made it.”
It was not about tactics or systems or press conferences. It was about gratitude. About telling a parent who never saw your greatest success that the journey mattered.
Then came the coincidence only football can script. “I turn around and it’s Sir Kenny,” Postecoglou said. The boyhood poster had stepped off the wall and into the corridor. “I’ve just walked through the Anfield tunnel with Kenny Dalglish, the guy that I had on my walls.”
There are moments in football that defy analysis. This was one of them.
Dalglish legacy beyond statistics
Dalglish’s record at Liverpool explains plenty. Over 500 appearances, more than 170 goals, countless assists and an era of league titles and European Cups. Yet numbers alone do not explain why a coach raised on the other side of the world still trembles at Anfield.
Dalglish represented grace under pressure, humility in triumph, humanity in grief. He embodied Liverpool’s identity. That legacy travelled across continents because it was about more than trophies. It was about belonging.
Every supporter knows this feeling. Ask anyone who grew up watching Ian Rush, Steven Gerrard or Mohamed Salah, and they will tell you heroes are stitched into memory like family heirlooms. For Postecoglou, Dalglish was that figure. The link between father and son. Between childhood and career.
Modern rivalry softened by shared respect
Liverpool’s modern era under Arne Slot has produced new rivalries and fresh narratives, yet stories like Postecoglou’s remind us football retains its human core. Managers shout across touchlines, clubs battle for points, but admiration lingers beneath.
Postecoglou’s Liverpool obsession does not weaken his professionalism. It enriches it. It reminds us coaches are supporters first, dreamers before strategists.
And it tells us something about Liverpool too. Anfield is more than bricks and seats. It is memory, promise and pilgrimage. A place where an Australian manager can whisper thanks to his father and shake hands with his childhood idol.
Dalglish gave Liverpool greatness. Liverpool gave Postecoglou belief. Football gave us a story worth telling.