The manager of Liverpool football club, Jurgen Klopp, has blamed the absence of fans at Anfield Stadium for the misfortunes the club has been suffering at the stadium so far this season.
Recall that since the coronavirus pandemic affected the game of football in mid-March 2020, football in England is being played behind closed doors to minimize the spread of the virus.
This development has not been working too well for most clubs across Europe especially Liverpool that used to enjoy an unprecedented unbeaten run in the presence of their fans at Anfield.
Before things got so bad for Liverpool, the club started recording their unbeaten run at Anfield stadium in April 2017. Between 2017 and 2020, Jurgen Klopp who has been the coach of Liverpool since 2015 led the club to a 68 games unbeaten run at the stadium.
However, towards the second half of the 2020-2021 season, Liverpool began to face an unprecedented poor run of games at Anfield which forced them to record 6 successive defeats.
The poor run of games stopped the club from being a major contender for the Premier League title this season which means that Jurgen Klopp and his boys would not be able to defend the title they won for the first time in 30 years last season.
After recording 9 defeats, 7 draws and 14 victories, Liverpool are currently sitting on the 7th spot with 49 points in 30 games, three points away from 4th placed West Ham United.
Later today, April 10, at 15:00, Liverpool will welcome Aston Villa at Anfield stadium for the club’s 31st Premier League game of the season. The reigning Premier League champions are expected to win the game to brighten their chances of making the top four.
Ahead of the game, the coach of Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp, pointed out that one of the major reasons Liverpool have been struggling at Anfield Stadium is the absence of spectators at the stadium.
“A lot of teams have that problem. Apart from that the reason why we didn’t win home games is we didn’t play well enough, not in all of them”, he said.
“There were some home games when we lost where I thought in other times even without the crowd, we would or should have won this game for sure but we didn’t.
“Now we have a losing streak of four home games? Six home games in a row – wow! That’s long. We have to change. But it’s not how can I change that in training or whatever, we have to bring ourselves in the right mindset.
“For a long time, nobody could really explain why we were are so strong at home, at least results-wise. Now, this is not easy to explain but the main reason why we are not exactly the same is we miss our supporters.
“That’s how it is but that is not to change. We have played very good games without supporters at home and that’s what we have to do now. We want to squeeze out of the season whatever we can get.”
The boss looks ahead to tomorrow's game 👇 #LIVAVL
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) April 9, 2021
