Anfield’s fear factor has gone – easy-touch Liverpool give City a free pass

There was a time when a visiting side would climb the steps at Anfield already half-beaten, spooked by the noise and the certainty that the ball would be coming back at them within seconds. That aura has been draining away for a while. On Sunday it disappeared entirely.

Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat by Manchester City was not merely a bad afternoon; it was the joint-heaviest home loss in the club’s Premier League history. Andoni Iraola’s side now sit ninth, without a top-flight win at Anfield since the closing weeks of last season.

A red card, then a rout

For an hour this was a contest. Liverpool pressed with purpose and City, unbeaten and brimming with confidence, were made to work for it. Then Gravenberch saw red on 62 minutes and the whole structure collapsed. City helped themselves to three goals against ten men and left Merseyside with their flawless record intact.

Iraola’s proudest statistic – 24 league games unbeaten going back to January, Bournemouth included – is gone. He insisted afterwards that he had taken plenty from the display, praising his players’ endeavour and claiming the opening hour had been very good. Few inside Anfield saw it that way.

The numbers behind a fading legend

No ground in the competition’s history has been kinder to its visitors in percentage terms than this one: only 12.5 per cent of away teams have departed with a win. That reputation is now under serious threat.

Since the turn of the year, Liverpool have won four of 13 home league matches – and more on their travels than in front of their own support. This term they have found the net seven times in the league, only twice at Anfield, and two of their three home fixtures have ended goalless for them.

The missing men and the £100m question

Early in the first half the television cameras found Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai sitting together in the Main Stand. Injured, all three of them. Between them they had scored six of the seven league goals Liverpool have managed this season, and their absence left the attack without a recognised finisher. Lewis Koumas, 21, ran himself into the ground but could not supply the ruthless finish required at this level.

That placed the burden on Florian Wirtz and Bradley Barcola, two men who cost north of £100m apiece and produced nothing close to that valuation. The clearest example came while the game was still goalless shortly before the hour, when Wirtz ignored Milos Kerkez and Barcola in space to his left and blazed wide. The match was there to be won.

‘They are too nice’

The most damning verdict came from a man who once wore the shirt. Warnock, speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, said the world’s leading sides are horrible to face and Liverpool simply are not, calling them soft touches with too many pleasant players and too few leaders beyond Virgil van Dijk bellowing instructions.

Paul Scholes had made a similar point on a podcast in September, suggesting the crowd no longer plays the part it did under Jurgen Klopp and that supporters are not fully behind what is unfolding. Nicky Butt, his old midfield partner, recalled sides travelling to Anfield beaten before kick-off. That psychological edge has been surrendered.

Iraola will argue, reasonably, that this is a small sample and that his injured forwards will return. But a club of Liverpool’s ambitions cannot keep waiting. Restoring the fear that once surrounded this ground is now the central task of his reign.

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Source: BBC Sport