ANFIELD — Bill Shankly called it a shrine rather than a football ground. Steven Gerrard is adamant he wants to die there rather than in hospital and Jurgen Klopp insisted if you Google “European nights”, Anfield should be the first thing that comes up.
Few grounds in world football have the same allure. Labelling it a fortress is an understatement; Arsene Wenger believed the famous old stadium won games on its own at times.
Slowly but surely, however, Anfield is losing its grandeur. Other venues have grown bigger and bolder, while the fear factor has gone, at the most inopportune moment for a new manager desperate to make his mark in the big job.
Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City means Liverpool have now won four of their 13 league matches at Anfield this calendar year, amid a mediocre start to the season that has perhaps flown under the radar, given Manchester United and Tottenham’s crises have garnered all the headlines.
Having not faced particularly elite opponents, a nine-point return from six matches thus far, having again invested heavily in the transfer market in the summer, is a below-par return.
“We had a massive advantage today,” Andoni Iraola said after the match. “The stadium did its part but it was not enough.”
Liverpool had the backing of the entirety of the Premier League, who feel so wronged by City’s systemic breaches of the financial rules, on Sunday.
Anfield Road was packed to the rafters with supporters ready to hurl insults, or worse, at the City bus as it entered the stadium. But, after being outflanked by their reviled opponents, who took a back entrance, Liverpool started the day as they meant to go on – having missed a trick.
Klopp’s heavy-metal football got pulses racing, and chests beating. Liverpool once won 24 games in a row at Anfield – the red half of Merseyside at the time felt like the epicentre of something seismic.
Now, after two relatively unflattering transfer windows, and results continuing on a downward curve, that spark has been extinguished.
What vitriol the City supporters got, they lapped up. The atmosphere threatened to become menacing upon kick off, as the whistles from the home support verged on the deafening.
Yet, as a poor first half wore on, where Liverpool failed to create anything of note and big-name players like Florian Wirtz and Bradley Barcola remained on the periphery of the action, City supporters started to feel like it was them who had the upper hand.
You cannot have imagined such tepid intensity from the terraces had Klopp been bouncing up and down his technical area.
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Liverpool, like many of their big-name rivals, have angered much of their own fanbase with ticket-price rises and a palpable push to favour day-tripping tourist supporters over regular season-ticket holders. Something supporters feel may only get worse after a consortium including Jeff Bezos acquired a large stake in the club.
That, coupled with such uninspiring play in front of their eyes, only adds to the feeling that intimidation is the last thing on opponents’ minds as they pass underneath the “This is Anfield” sign.
Getting the joie de vivre back will be a monumental task for a rookie coach with so much to prove at the highest level. Yet, restoring Anfield’s mojo, when it represented a daunting proposition under famous managerial luminaries before, will define how successful Iraola’s red revolution will be.