Liverpool vs Everton: Why 'Fortress Anfield' may keep Marco Silva's talented side waiting for win

Everton supporters are more optimistic than usual that they can end their 19-year wait for an Anfield win yet will arrive at something of a fortress

Winning at Anfield has become something of a fixation for Everton. A victory today would be their first there this millennium, the last having come courtesy of Kevin Campbell in September 1999.

Back then, Richard Gough, today 58-years-old, was part of Everton’s defence. Steven Gerrard was still to make a name for himself, quite literally, as he was mistaken as a ‘Stephen’ in BBC Sport’s match report. Trent Alexander-Arnold, meanwhile, was waiting to celebrate his first birthday.

Yet, ahead of this 232nd Merseyside derby, there is hope that an in-form, talented and expansive Everton side may be able to end their 19-year wait for success. The Liverpool manager even suggested as much at Melwood on Friday.

This is the “best-tuned” Everton that Jürgen Klopp has personally witnessed during his three years on Merseyside. “The games were always difficult in the last couple of years but the improvement of Everton is obvious,” he said. “It’s a completely different team, different style. It’s good.”

And whereas Sam Allardyce gleefully returned to the other side of Stanley Park with a point a year ago, his successor Marco Silva will arrive with no intention of merely sharing the spoils. Whatever the result, Klopp is unlikely to end the afternoon complaining that only one team was “trying to win”, as he did last December.

Under Silva, Everton have won five of their last seven league outings, shoring up an initially shaky defence along the way, all while blooding in high-profile signings after another ambitious summer. Often thought of as the ‘seventh-best’ team in an era of a ‘top six’ dominance, Everton are currently in sixth, interloping on the elite.

A win on Sunday would convince many outsiders Silva’s side can break into that upper bracket, especially given Manchester United’s malaise, but the cruel fact Evertonians must contend with on Sunday is that since their last victory in 1999, Anfield has hardly been a more difficult place to go.

Rooney salvaged a point at Anfield last season (Getty)

Under Klopp, Liverpool are currently on a 27-game unbeaten streak in the league at home. Over the last 19 years, that figure is only surpassed by Rafael Benitez’s Liverpool in their late-2000s peak, who reached 30 league games unbeaten at Anfield between December 2007 and August 2009.

Liverpool’s last home league defeat was in April of last year – to Allardyce’s Crystal Palace, incidentally. Since February, they have conceded just twice on their own ground. Both goals proved inconsequential to the result: a comfortable home victory.

“It should stay like this,” was Klopp’s message on Friday. “It should be normal that it is very difficult for other teams to play you in your own stadium.”

Klopp mischievously called Anfield “nicer than all the other stadiums in the league”, and credits the renovation of the Main Stand as a factor in the success. “It’s a nice environment to be in, you feel comfortable, it’s our home.”

December promises to be a pivotal month in Liverpool’s title challenge too and one in which their Anfield form will be crucial. After Everton, Klopp’s side will welcome Bournemouth, United, Newcastle United and Arsenal before the month is out, as well as Napoli, in a crucial Champions League group stage decider.

“December was always a very decisive month and this year is no different,” Klopp said. “If we can carry on like we did results-wise, that will be good. If we can go through December like this, that will be really great and will be a really big statement.

“I don’t think a lot of Evertonians are going to think about our home record,” he would add. Some will though, and those that do may find it grimly ironic that one of their most talented sides since that night in 1999 should arrive at Anfield just as it appears to be impenetrable.