It was a good season overall and a qualification to Champions League was essential for lifting the team spirit up. As the club continues to plan things off the pitch, it looks like the pitch itself is being changed, quite literally. Yes! Work is underway at Anfield to change the pitch ahead of the 2017/18 season. It was last replaced in 2001 and had a lifespan of 10 years, so the new pitch is well overdue.
The last two seasons has seen the pitch re-seeded, with no option to replace it due to the ongoing Main Stand expansion works. The new pitch will be ‘Desso GrassMaster’ – a combination of natural grass and artificial fibres.
The ground came in for criticism from former boss Brendan Rodgers, who told Sky Sports after Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal in December 2014,
“It was an outstanding performance, the quality of our passing and moving on a terrible pitch, the pitch is awful here. But I thought the players put that to the side, and the passing, interchange and movement against a good side was fantastic. We thoroughly deserved to be at least one up in the first half, but we made bad decisions defensively.”
Rodgers is not the only Liverpool boss who has criticised the pitch at our historic Anfield stadium, as even current boss Jurgen Klopp pointed out the shortcoming after our team’s 0-0 draw against Southampton in early May.
He said, “Today the pitch was really dry. We gave all the water we had and after 15 minutes it was really dry. It was difficult and with a lot of passes you could say, ‘Why are they playing this?’. In a home game you have to have the best circumstances but we couldn’t have this.”
It is probably not a coincidence that Liverpool had a better season away from home, as the Premier League table suggests the true story. Liverpool accumulated a total of 35 points from 19 away games, with 10 wins, 5 draws and 4 losses on the road. This puts Liverpool only behind Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United in the Premier League away table.
In the 19 home league games, the Reds collected 41 points from 19 games, with 12 wins, 5 draws and 2 losses. This places the Reds at 5th in the Premier League home table. Not as bad as it may seem, it probably would have been much better had the pitch been in good condition maybe?
While arguments may arise, it is worth pointing out that Tottenham, who were undefeated at home all season in the league, collected 53 from a possible 57 and only 33 points away from home – 2 less than us. They challenged for the title and this should probably give us a clear picture of how important home form is for a team to put up a title challenge. Chelsea, the Premier League champions, had a good season at home as well, scoring 51 points after 19 games.
However, now that the pitch is being changed, we’ll have to wait and see how the boys perform at Anfield next season.
There’s also work off the pitch at Anfield, with over 40 different jobs taking place ranging from paintwork internally and externally, to bigger jobs such as an expansion of the back of the Kop and installation of new disabled access areas.
The club will add around 470 new seats at the back of the Kop, while the number of wheelchair bays will also increase from 195 to over 250 positions, plus over 150 extra amenity and easy access seats – these will be located in the Centenary Stand. There’s also the new external club shop, which is also due to be complete in time for next season.
It looks like a lot of expansion work is going on at Anfield and it is good to see the same. Hopefully, there will be some exciting news on the transfer front as well.
