Rise of a Football God

What is the Anfield effect?

To many, it was a myth, just a term made up by Liverpool fans to scare their rivals when they visit their home stadium, but was it really just a myth?

Liverpool FC is one of the oldest clubs in England with a lot of history, only behind Manchester United and over the years, there was one thing that opposition players always testified of, even legends of the game, and it was the atmosphere of this stadium during the high-stake games.

Legendary football players like the Brazilian legend, Ronaldo Nazario already testified of the Anfield effect, the very effect of playing in this iconic stadium.

Coming from 3-0 down to win 4-0 at home and snatch the final spot of the UEFA Champions league was not something that any club could do.

Not even the best clubs in the world could do it, and most definitely not against the FC Barcelona squad of 2018 led by a rampant Lionel Messi, yet, Liverpool managed to do it, how?

They did it because of the Anfield effect.

Sam had watched Liverpool games as a neutral fan lots of times as he grew up, witnessing miracle after miracle happen in this stadium, and finally, for the first time in his life, he experienced it as a professional football player.

FWEEEE!

As soon as the referee's whistle sounded after Willian's goal for Fulham, to the Liverpool players, the game truly started at that point.

A war started on the pitch!

Jurgen Kloop, the Liverpool manager was known for a few things, including his chill attitude and his 4-3-3 formation, but his formation was less known and notorious compared to his tactical approach to football.

Jurgen Kloop adapted the tactical approach of gen-gen pressing.

It was a chaotic, high-intensity approach to football where the work rate of all the Liverpool outfield players is expected to be at an insane rate across 90 minutes.

It was a grueling approach to football, but for Jurgen Kloop, it paid dividends.

This chaotic, high-intensity approach to football was why in the premier league, Liverpool FC were known as Manchester City's kryptonite.

Afterall, during the Pep Guardiola era in the premier league, Liverpool under Jurgen Kloop are the only club to have pipped Man City to the premier league title once, with the Pep Guardiola machine taking all other titles.

Manchester City were renowned as the control machine. With incredible ball-retaining midfielders like Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden, they play a game of control where they carefully work their way towards goal and simply blow their opponents away, but not Liverpool FC.

Jurgen Kloop's mentality was simple; when playing against the masters of control, don't try to beat them at their own game, instead, switch it up.

Switch it up from control to chaos, pure unadulterated chaos.

In the 2018/2019 season, Liverpool FC fully embodied this philosophy at its peak as led by the legendary forward trio of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino, and Mohamed Salah, Liverpool swept aside all opposition to win the double of the UEFA champions league and the premier league title.

Of course, even during their peak, one thing was a constant that enabled them pull off miracle after miracle, the Anfield effect.

From the 19th minute, as soon as the game restarted after Willian's goal, Liverpool FC came roaring out like a rabid mother Tiger whose cubs were threatened by another predator.

The Tiger came roaring out rabidly with chaos and furious retribution.

"Allez!" "Allez!" "Allez!"

The Liverpool fans started, singing, chanting, drowning the iconic stadium with noise and in the chaos of the noise, the Liverpool players thrived.

The Liverpool team as a whole played like a master of chaos.

From the back, Virgil Van Dijk, the tall and imposing center back kept an incredibly cool head, leading the team from the back and kickstarting their play as the rest of his defense alongside him snuffed out all further Fulham attacks. Experience tales with empire

The triumvate of Willian, De Cordova-Reid and Jimenez were completely locked out by the Liverpool defense for the rest of the first half, letting their midfield and offense to thrive in the chaos that followed.

With Van Dijk leading from the back, Diogo Jota led from the front.

The Portuguese forward led the attack, pressing alongside the rest of his forwards with relentless intensity as they didn't let the ball stay in Fulham legs for more than a few seconds.

And with the Argentinian International, Alexis Mac Allister orchestrating play from the base of midfield, assisted by his partners in crime in midfield today, Ryan Gravenberch and Curtis Jones, Liverpool FC posed a great threat with every attack.

The Liverpool attacking trio for this game each tested the Fulham goalkeeper multiple times as the half wore on but Bernd Leno was on top of his game, putting out impressive save after save to keep his team in the game.

The more the game wore on and the louder the stadium became, the more rattled the Fulham players became, leading into more mistakes.

And the more mistakes they made; the more chaos reigned.

And the more chaos reigned, the more the Liverpool players thrived.

20 minutes passed…

30 minutes passed…

And finally, on the 41st minute, after relentless attacks against the Fulham box, Liverpool FC finally had their closest chance of the first half.

Receiving the ball in the center of the pitch, Alexis Mac Allister, the Argentinian international drove forward a bit with the ball and out of the blue, he unleashed an incredible shot at goal from almost 30 yards out!

BANG!

The ball rose high into the air, beating the goalkeeper before hitting the post, making a loud banging sound reverberate as the flustered Fulham players pounced on the rebound, barely clearing it off back into the field.

For the remaining minutes of the first half, Liverpool FC kept dominating their opponents, trying chance after chance to no avail.

Diogo Jota came closest after Mac Allister but in the end, Bernd Leno was still on top of his game, keeping him out.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Incredibly, Fulham managed to escape to half time still leading 1-0.

The question was, would their lead last?

Afterall, the Anfield effect was still in play.