Let’s not mince words. Last season was a nightmare. It would be a disservice to the players not to give them credit for clawing their way back into the top three, when mostly everyone had already written off the season. But let’s face it, before the season started no one would’ve been satisfied with third place and only 69 points. It was always going to be a challenge to defend the title, even with a completely healthy squad for the entire season. Only once in the previous eleven attempts had a club successfully defended its Premier League title, when Manchester City was able to sneak past Liverpool as both clubs nearly reached a hundred points in the 2018-19 season. With a giant-sized target on their back, Liverpool would’ve needed to play nearly perfect football to repeat as champions. The team suffered numerous setbacks, and every excuse imaginable was mentioned. From injuries to suspicious VAR decisions going against us, there were no shortage of alibis for poor results. Of all the possible reasons Liverpool Football Club seemingly underperformed last campaign, what I consider to be the smoking gun hardly gets mentioned. That would be the lack of supporters attending the match.
Anfield has always been considered a fortress that opponents feared dearly. History has shown why, where magical moments have happened that could be hardly explained any other way. Minds have been blown witnessing some of the matches where Liverpool pulled out a victory at Anfield when draw or even a loss seemed to be a just result. Most players and managers, when asked the question about the toughest places to play, put Anfield at the top of their list. A fortress without fans is nothing more than a building. During this lockdown, they might as well have played the matches in the middle of Stanley Park. Somehow it seems that this factor hardly gets mentioned. It’s like the dirty family secret that everyone acknowledges but no one admits. Maybe that’s because every club was in the same position as Liverpool with no team playing in front of their supporters. Because it wasn’t an act that only affected Liverpool doesn’t mean it should be discounted. No other club has a home field advantage like Liverpool does. In fact, one could make the case that Manchester City had an unfair advantage last season since they’ve been playing in empty stadiums for years. Every football club expects a bump from their home supporters. I don’t want to minimize the impact it may have had on other clubs, but I will. The energy created by the Anfield faithful simultaneously intimidates the visitors while elevating the Reds to higher levels of play. No one will ever convince me that another ground in England can impact results with more magnitude than Anfield does.
When Sir Alex Ferguson was in charge at Manchester United, it had been said that his coercive skills with referees was worth about ten undeserved points in the final table every season. I’ve also heard that having the world’s best goalkeeper can have a similar impact, turning losses into draws and draws into wins. Ever since Jürgen Klopp took control of Liverpool Football Club, you could make the case that playing matches in front of a capacity crowd at Anfield wielded similar magical powers. During the latter stages of the 2018-19 season when we were battling Man City down the stretch in an epic conclusion to the Premier League title, one could hardly argue that the Anfield faithful helped “will” the team to wins over Crystal Palace (4-3 with an extra time Mane goal to seal the win) and Spurs (where Toby Alderweireld’s comical own-goal with Hugo Lloris as the Reds pressed in front of the Kop gave them a 2-1 victory). Without fans in the stand, Liverpool likely don’t pull those results out of the proverbial hat.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent global lockdown, Liverpool had not been defeated in a Premier League match at Anfield since April 23, 2017 when Crystal Palace won 2-1. Let that sink in for a moment. When the league season was halted back in March 2020, Liverpool had gone more than two full seasons without a Premier League loss at Anfield. That’s immense. Was it simply an extended run of great play? Was it luck? Or was it finally the club had a product on the pitch that could ignite the crowd like it had in the good old days. Give the Kopites some hope, and they pay it back in decibels.
Much was spoken about the 68-match Premier League unbeaten streak that eventually ended when Burnley defeat Liverpool at Anfield. I remember that match well. Divock Origi and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain both started in the front three that night, presumably because it was a mid-week fixture with a weekend FA Cup date at Old Trafford only a few days away. Origi hit the crossbar on a breakaway chance late in the first half, an opportunity that likely would’ve been converted by eventual substitute Mo Salah. Despite having less than 30% possession in the match, Burnley converted a late penalty to win one-nil. I’ll be the first to admit that I was disappointed to see the streak end, because like all Liverpool fans I want to see the club’s name on every significant record listed in the books. Of course, not a single supporter would trade silverware for records. But when that result leads to an incredible stretch of defeats at the hands of Brighton & Hove Albion, Man City, Everton, Chelsea, and Fulham you have to ask yourself “what the hell just happened?” That’s 79 days of Premier League football with a win at Anfield, immediately after 1,369 straight days of not losing there. They eventually defeated Aston Villa 2-1 to break that ridiculous losing streak, which can’t be described as anything more than an anomaly. Teams don’t simply follow a 68-match unbeatable streak with a 6-match losing streak without a reasonable explanation. The common denominator? No fans.
There’s an old proverb that I’m sure you’ve heard before. If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? This is an analogy that is extremely applicable for my argument. If Everton beat Liverpool at Anfield and no one is in the ground to see it, did it actually happen? Before last season the Bitters last win at our ground was September 27, 1999. That’s not even in this millennium!! Twenty-three times prior to that match in February 2021, Everton had traversed Stanley Park to Anfield and left without a victory. I was fortunate enough to have attended one of those matches on April 1, 2017 where Liverpool were 3-1 victors. One of my fondest memories was being in the Kop singing “you haven’t won at Anfield since 1999!!” Yes, it’s true that we can still sing “you haven’t won a trophy since 1995!!!” which is the other more popular chant heard throughout the match, but somehow that isn’t as fun to me. I think that loss to Everton bothers me more than anything else over the entirety of last season. I can only take solace in the fact that the Evertonians that would’ve been fortunate enough to get tickets to see the historic win with their own eyes were not actually present at Anfield to enjoy it. Of course, if they were actually in the ground that day along with over 45,000 vocal Red supporters, I firmly believe that result would never have happened. It’s a chicken vs. egg type of argument, but you’ll never convince me otherwise. Liverpool would’ve won that match. Easily.
You can call me crazy, and you might be right. I’ve been called worse. But think about it for a moment. Without fans in the stands, Jordan Pickford doesn’t get indecisive on a flailing Virgil moon shot allowing Divock Origi to head home the winner in added time. Without fans in the stands, Dejan Lovren doesn’t cap off a 3-goal comeback over one of the best sides in Europe with his late header to beat Dortmund in 2016. Without fans in the stands, the referee doesn’t succumb to uncertainty and give Luis Garcia the “ghost goal” against Chelsea in the 2005 Champions League semifinal. Without fans in the stands, a somewhat-depleted lineup doesn’t defeat Lionel Messi and Barcelona 4-0 in the second leg of the Champions League semifinals in the most incredible comeback that competition has ever seen. Without fans in the stands, Liverpool Football Club simply isn’t as good as they could be. When we serenade the club with the lyrics to “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, the key word is “alone.” Without fans in the stands, the club seems to walk alone no matter how hard we try to let them know they are not. I’m convinced it makes a huge difference.
So this week we bring on the new season. You can regurgitate all the excuses ad nauseam. All of the season-ending injuries that depleted our defense and behind us now. We have a healthy Virgil, Gomez, Matip, and Hendo in our stable. VAR has been tweaked where even experts acknowledge many of last year’s Liverpool goals would no longer be disallowed in the upcoming season. And both of those will likely contribute to some results that otherwise would’ve gone against the Reds. But I am most excited by the fact that when Liverpool face Burnley on Saturday August 21st, there will be a full crowd of supporters helping the club to another three points. Against Burnley it may not matter as much, but the following week when Chelsea come to town? That’s a different story. Our lads will need the vocal support that the Kopites will give them. And as long as this damn coronavirus and its Delta variant can behave just a little, I have every reason to believe we’ll come to the business end of the season in contention. It will be a battle to dethrone Manchester City to win our 20th Premier League title, which would put us firmly back on that perch that Sir Alex loved knocking us off not long ago. I look forward to playing a part singing my ass off in the process, whether it be at Anfield or in the pub. It matters not. As supporters of the greatest club in all of football, we all play a part in this orchestra. We can’t ever forget that fact. It’s been said many times before that football is nothing without fans. Last season we saw how true that statement was. Let’s hope we won’t ever have to live that horrible experiment again.
YNWA,
Ken Kendra
The opinions expressed in this blog are mine and do not necessarily reflect that of LFC Raleigh or Liverpool Football Club. I am the author of the book “Walking Through The Storm” available on Amazon, Kindle, World Soccer Shop, and other book depository outlets. Follow me on Twitter: @kjkendra11