What Liverpool must do to fix home form after Fortress Anfield reduced to rubble

June 04, 2024

Roberto Firmino ran the length of Anfield’s pitch, arms outstretched in celebration, as he accepted the acclaim of the 1,500 jubilant fans on the Kop.

It was December 16 and the Brazilian’s dramatic late header from Andy Robertson’s corner against Tottenham had just sent Liverpool three points clear of their visitors at the top of the Premier League table. The defending champions had taken 21 points out of a possible 21 at Anfield to that point in the season.

Remarkably, some 116 days on, Jurgen Klopp’s side haven’t won on home turf since.

Fortress Anfield has been reduced to rubble.

Having previously gone 68 home league games unbeaten over nearly four years, Liverpool have suffered six straight home league defeats – the worst sequence in the club’s 128-year history.

Burnley ended their proud record on January 21 and Brighton, Manchester City, Everton, Chelsea and Fulham have all piled on the misery. For context, Liverpool haven’t lost six home league games in a season since 1953-54. When they were relegated after finishing bottom of the old First Division.

The deposed champions have collected just two points from a possible 24 at Anfield since that last-gasp victory over Spurs.

Since Sadio Mane volleyed home Joel Matip’s pass against West Bromwich Albion two days after Christmas, Liverpool haven’t scored from open play at home in 708 minutes — nearly 12 hours of football.

In fact, their only Premier League goal at Anfield this calendar year was Mohamed Salah’s penalty in the 4-1 defeat to title-bound City. Excluding that spot kick, they have failed to score with every one of their last 115 goal attempts at home in the top flight.

Yet during the same barren period, Klopp’s men have won on the road at Tottenham, West Ham, Sheffield United, Wolves and Arsenal, as well as beating RB Leipzig twice on neutral turf in Hungary in the Champions League’s last 16, to keep their season alive.

However, if something is going to be salvaged from 2020-21, Liverpool need to sort out their home form and fast.

The Premier League game against Aston Villa at Anfield today will be followed by the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final with Real Madrid there on Wednesday, when there’s a 3-1 deficit to overturn.

“The main reason why we aren’t exactly the same at home is that we miss our supporters,” insists Klopp. “No doubt about that but we’ve played some very good games at home without supporters and that’s what we have to do now. Now we have a losing streak of, what, four games?”

It was pointed out to Klopp that his seventh-placed side had actually lost half a dozen in a row at Anfield.

“Wow! OK. It’s not easy to explain after being so strong results-wise. We didn’t play well enough and we have to change that. We have to bring ourselves in the right mindset. If you can imagine playing a good game then that’s a step in the right direction. We want to fight to get in the Champions League next year and we want to stay in it this year so we need two wins. We have to show a reaction.”

In the continued absence of fans, that response must be triggered from inside the dressing room and there’s much to be learned from these six painful setbacks at Anfield.

They highlight the pitfalls that must be avoided if Liverpool are going to belatedly experience some home comforts again.

Slow starts

A feature of Liverpool’s dominance on home turf in recent years has been their ability to make life uncomfortable for visiting teams from the off.

They played with a tempo and an intensity which stretched even the most packed of deep-lying defences. If they failed to make an early breakthrough, they kept a vice-like grip on proceedings and slowly wore the other lot down. That’s why they only dropped two points at home in their title-winning season. Klopp’s Liverpool have lost that ability to come flying out of the traps in recent months.

Anfield has become far too welcoming, with Liverpool frequently sluggish in first halves and gifting the initiative to their opponents. Everton at home in February was a good example as Thiago’s misplaced pass and Ozan Kabak’s failure to track Richarlison’s run saw the hosts fall behind after less than three minutes. Crucially, Carlo Ancelotti’s side had something to hold onto and Everton would win at Anfield for the first time this century.

Displays of real urgency from Klopp’s men have arrived far too late.

Poor decision-making and losing their heads

There have been some glaring misses during this miserable run at home (think Divock Origi going clean through on goal against Burnley and Mane fluffing a golden chance against Chelsea) but for the most part, it hasn’t been a tale of Liverpool being wasteful in the final third or visiting goalkeepers having to perform heroics.

The biggest issue has been a lack of creativity, with Liverpool unable to make their huge amount of possession count. Too often, their passing has been slow and predictable. As a result, they have struggled badly to penetrate the defensive lines formed in front of them.

In the 1-1 with West Brom, Liverpool had 78 per cent of the ball but turned it into just two shots on target. Against Brighton, they had 63 per cent possession and forced just one save all night.

During this eight-game winless streak at home, they have only had more than three attempts on goal in the space of 90 minutes twice, against Burnley and Everton. Teams have sat deep, soaked up what little pressure there was and then hit a depleted back line on the counter-attack. It’s worked time and again.

The more desperate Klopp’s men have got in games, the more they have slung in a succession of aimless crosses which have been easy to defend. There were 30 alone from open play against Burnley. They have certainly lacked some spark and guile through the middle and the movement hasn’t been good enough from the front line.

Since Liverpool last played at home a month ago, against Fulham, Fabinho has been restored to the holding midfield role after being used as a makeshift centre-half because of injuries and Diogo Jota has regained full fitness having been out since shortly before the West Brom draw in December, so Klopp at least has a different dynamic to operate with now.

Liverpool have lost six Premier League matches on the trot at Anfield (Photo: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

Dwindling threat from set pieces

Three days after Firmino’s bullet header left Tottenham crestfallen in December, Liverpool made another set piece count. Matip connected with Trent Alexander-Arnold’s delivery and Salah turned the ball home from close range in a 7-0 rout of Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.

That was the last time Klopp’s side scored from a corner in the top flight. They have taken 105 more since.

For context, Liverpool were the corner kings of the Premier League last season, when one in every 14 corners they took led to a goal. However, since Matip joined Virgil van Dijk on the sidelines in January, a potent weapon in Klopp’s armoury has been blunted. Van Dijk and Matip were the two top centre-backs across the 2019-20 Premier League when it came to aerial duel win percentage and their absence has hurt Liverpool at both ends of the field.

Careless errors and a lack of concentration

Manchester City are an exceptional team and what looked like being a thrilling title race at the halfway stage has since turned into a procession as a result of their remarkable consistency. However, their first win at Anfield in almost 18 years was given to them on a plate.

Midway through the second half, Liverpool were bang in contention after Salah had converted from the spot to cancel out Ilkay Gundogan’s opener. The game was there to be won but then Alisson endured the biggest nightmare of his Liverpool career as two inexplicably bad clearances led to goals for Gundogan and Raheem Sterling in the space of four minutes. His team-mates visibly wilted and Phil Foden rubbed salt into gaping wounds late on.

Yes, the penalty award was soft but Alisson also mistimed a challenge on Ashley Barnes which led to Burnley’s first win at Anfield since 1974 being secured from the spot. Klopp described that result as “a massive punch in the face”. Slack defending enabled Steven Alzate to score with the game’s first attempt on target when Brighton recorded their first league win at Anfield since 1982 two weeks later. Fulham’s winner a month ago was also very avoidable, with Salah dispossessed before Mario Lemina fired home the only goal on the brink of half-time.

Basic errors have been punished while, at the other end, Liverpool have let visiting teams off the hook.

Strange team selections and ineffective substitutions

Liverpool never looked comfortable with the rookie centre-back partnership of Rhys Williams and Nathaniel Phillips against Fulham. With Neco Williams recalled at right-back that day too, the hosts looked vulnerable throughout.

The relegation-threatened Londoners didn’t even need to ride their luck, they were actually the better team. The introductions of Mane and Fabinho off the bench in the final half-hour came too late.

Klopp had shaken things up, too, for the visit of Burnley, which came between successive Sunday meetings with Manchester United in the league and FA Cup. Origi led the line that night with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on the right, just his second start of the season, as Klopp left out Salah and Firmino. That didn’t work either.

On other occasions, his changes off the bench haven’t had the desired impact. Curtis Jones was certainly very unfortunate to be taken off for James Milner on 68 minutes against City, with the score 1-1. Liverpool got worse rather than better against Brighton when Oxlade-Chamberlain and Origi came on for Georginio Wijnaldum and Xherdan Shaqiri just after the hour.

Eyebrows were raised when top scorer Salah was subbed on 62 minutes against Chelsea when Liverpool were chasing the game. The Egyptian couldn’t hide his frustration as he shook his head in disbelief. Again, things didn’t improve for the hosts after that change. There were 85 minutes on the clock when Wijnaldum’s tame header from Alexander-Arnold’s cross was easily saved – Liverpool’s only attempt on target all night.

Now it’s crunch time.

Two more setbacks on home turf in quick succession this week and Liverpool’s season will effectively be over with more than a month of it left. But beat Villa and mount another famous European fightback against Madrid and hope will abound.

Start brightly, play with intensity, move the ball quickly, keep your head if the breakthrough doesn’t arrive, be inventive from set pieces, cut out the stupid mistakes and start putting that fortress back together brick by brick.

Anfield won’t truly be Anfield until all, or most, of those long-vacant seats are occupied again but Liverpool can’t afford for this inexplicable slide at home to continue any longer.

(Top photo: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

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