For the better part of a decade, the hardest part of a trip to Anfield was the first twenty minutes. Teams arrived braced, conceded early, and spent the rest of the afternoon chasing. Away sides still have a lower win percentage there, 12.5 per cent, than at any other stadium in Premier League history. The number is real. The feeling behind it has gone somewhere.
Andoni Iraola watched his side lose 3-0 to Manchester City on Sunday and was honest about where the game turned. "We played two different games: one until the red card, and then after," he told Match of the Day, referring to Ryan Gravenberch's dismissal on 62 minutes. "For 60 minutes, the players were very good. The second game from the red card was where City were better than us."
The home record is the problem
He is right about Sunday and it does not cover the pattern. Liverpool are winless in three Premier League home games this season, only the second time that has happened. Stretch the sample back into last season and they have gone five successive league matches at Anfield without a win, four draws and a defeat. Go back to the start of the calendar year and they have won four of thirteen league games there, which is fewer than they have won on the road in the same period.
Stephen Warnock, who played in that stadium, put it more bluntly on BBC Radio 5 Live. "The best teams in the world are also horrible to play against. Liverpool aren't horrible," he said. "They're an easy touch at the moment. They have too many players that are nice and they have to change that part of things." He also noted that beyond Virgil van Dijk barking orders, there is not much leadership in the side.
Paul Scholes made a similar point on The Good, the Bad and the Football podcast last month, from the visiting dressing room's perspective. Under Jurgen Klopp, he said, the crowd made the place feel impossible to get the ball in. Now teams have more possession and look more comfortable than they ever did. Nicky Butt's line was harsher still: five years ago, he said, a side like Fulham was beaten before they climbed the steps.
Seven goals is not enough
Atmosphere is downstream of football, though, and Liverpool's football has a specific hole in it. They have scored seven league goals all season. Only seven clubs have scored fewer. Manchester City have scored sixteen. Across three home league games, Liverpool have failed to score in two.
That is the whole story, really.
Part of that is bad luck. The cameras found Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai sitting together in the Main Stand, all injured, and between them those three have scored six of the seven. Lewis Koumas worked hard in Isak's absence but the 21-year-old does not yet have the finishing edge the level demands.
Which leaves the two players who were bought to decide exactly these games. Florian Wirtz and Bradley Barcola both arrived for more than £100m and neither produced a moment on Sunday. The clearest example came at 0-0 in the 55th minute, when Wirtz had Milos Kerkez and Barcola in acres of space to his left and shot wide instead.
What Iraola has to build
His record is not the issue. Sunday was Iraola's first Premier League defeat in 24 matches, ten wins and thirteen draws, going back to January and including his time at Bournemouth. Liverpool have also won twice away from home this season and have won at Anfield in the Champions League and the Carabao Cup, so the problem is narrower than a general collapse.
Liverpool sit ninth. "You learn a lot in games like today," Iraola said afterwards. "I am very proud of my players. They put the work rate and everything in today. It's a loss and we didn't get anything from the performance but I liked it a lot." A manager can say that in October. By spring the only thing that will register is whether visiting teams have started to arrive nervous again.
Form guide: Liverpool are ninth, winless in three Premier League home games this season and in five successive league games at Anfield going back to last season. Seven league goals scored. Andoni Iraola lost a Premier League match for the first time in 24, going back to January.
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