MANAGER: JURGEN KLOPP

OWNERS: FENWAY SPORTS GROUP

CHAIRPERSON: TOM WERNER

CAPTAIN: JORDAN HENDERSON

NICKNAME: THE REDS

STADIUM: ANFIELD

RIVALS: MANCHESTER UNITED, EVERTON, MANCHESTER CITY

Nicknamed “The Reds”, Liverpool FC is the second-most successful club in England. They have won the English League title 19 times including their first-ever Premier League title in 2019-20.

The team from Merseyside has won 7 FA Cups, a record 8 League Cups, and 15 Community Shields. However, the one accolade that really stands out for the Kop is their 6 UEFA Champions League titles. Liverpool is the most decorated English side in European football, winning their last Champions League title in 2018-19 to go 3 ahead of second-placed Manchester United.

Only Real Madrid and AC Milan have more Champions League titles than the Reds. Liverpool found success in the second division of European football when things were not going well for them. They are 3 time UEFA Cup (now, Europa League) winners, and hold the record for the most UEFA Super Cup wins too with 4.

Liverpool is one of the most widely supported teams in the world and is the eighth-most valuable football club.

The club’s anthem is “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.

Liverpool supporters have been involved in two major tragedies:-

(1) The Heysel Stadium disaster, where escaping fans were pressed against a collapsing wall at the 1985 European Cup Final in Brussels, with 39 people – mostly Italians and Juventus fans – dying, after which English clubs were given a five-year ban from European competitions.

(2) The Hillsborough disaster in 1989, where 96 Liverpool supporters died due to a stampede against the perimeter fencing, which brought an end to standing terraces in favour of all-seater stadiums in the top two tiers of English football.

HISTORY OF LIVERPOOL FC

Liverpool F.C. was founded following a dispute between the Everton committee and John Houlding, who was the club president and owner of the land at Anfield.

Everton was then forced to relocate to Goodison Park and then Houlding founded Liverpool on his land at Anfield but it took some time for the Football Association (FA) to officially recognise the Anfield club as they refused to acknowledge it given the split from Everton.

Liverpool played their first-ever game in September 1892 against Rotherham Town, which they won 7-1. The Reds reached their first FA Cup final in 1914 but they, unfortunately, lost 1-0 to Burnley.

LFC – as Liverpool’s football team is commonly known, won the League championships in 1922 and 1923, but failed to win again for over 20 years, finally ending the hiatus by winning the First Division title for the 5th time in 1946-47 under George Kay.

LIVERPOOL’S EARLY SUCCESS

Bill Shankly and the first taste of success after over a decade

Liverpool was relegated to the 2nd division in 1953-54. Bill Shankly was appointed manager of the club after the 1958-59 FA Cup. The club made it back into the First Division in 1962 and won the league in 1964, after 17 years! Liverpool finally won the FA Cup as well in 1965 and made the finals of the European Cup Winners’ Cup (now, UEFA Champions League) in 1966 but lost to Borussia Dortmund.

Liverpool won the League and UEFA Cup (Europa League) in 1972-73 and the FA Cup once again, a year later. Shankly brought lots of success to Liverpool before deciding to retire to be replaced by Bob Paisley.

Bob Paisley and 20 trophies

In 1976, Bob Paisley’s Liverpool did the double once again as they won the League and UEFA Cup. In the following season, LFC retained its League title and went on to win the European Cup (now, Champions League) for the first time.

Bob Paisley was so successful as LFC manager that the club won 20 trophies in the 9 seasons he was in charge including 6 League titles, 3 European Cups, 1 UEFA Cup, 3 consecutive League Cups. He only failed to win the FA Cup during his tenure.

Joe Fagan’s short-lived success

Joe Fagan took over from Paisley and Liverpool ended up winning the League once again, the League Cup and European Cup as well, becoming the first English side to win three trophies in one season. Liverpool made the European Cup final in 1985 but lost to Juventus. A match that was marred by Liverpool fans wreaking havoc at what is now known as the Heysel Stadium disaster that led to the death of 39 football fans.

King Kenny at the helm

Kenny Dalglish took over Liverpool as a player-manager. Liverpool managed to win 3 league titles and 2 FA Cups under him. They did the English double in 1985-86 when they won the league and FA Cup in the same season.

Failure to replicate the success of the past in the newly-found Premier League

After Kenny Dalglish resigned, Liverpool struggled to win titles. Graeme Souness took over from Dalglish and managed to lead Liverpool to the FA Cup in 1992 but they struggled in the league finishing 6th in consecutive seasons, which led to his sacking in 1994. Souness was replaced by Roy Evans and Liverpool went on to win the 1995 League Cup.

Evans only managed to get Liverpool to 3rd in the league in 1996 and 1998, which meant that Gerard Houllier was called upon to lead the Kop. In 2001, Gerard Houllier managed to bring back significant silverware as Liverpool won 3 trophies in the same season – the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup.

Liverpool finished 2nd behind Arsenal in the Premier League in 2002 and won the League Cup again in 2003. 2 seasons without success led to Houllier being replaced by Rafa Benitez.

Liverpool finished 5th in the Premier League in Rafa’s first season in-charge however, they won the 2004-05 UEFA Champions League in dramatic fashion. Liverpool finished 3rd in the Premier League, the following season, and won the 2006 FA Cup.

The Scousers made the Champions League final once again in 2007 but lost to AC Milan. During 2008-09, Liverpool made a big push for the Premier League title but fell short as they saw Manchester United lift yet another Premier League title.

After the failure to win silverware since Rafa Benitez, Liverpool jumped on the opportunity when Jurgen Klopp decided to part ways with Borussia Dortmund.

The Jurgen Klopp era

Brendan Rodgers was sacked by Liverpool in 2015 and was replaced by German, Jurgen Klopp. It did not take long to see how good Klopp would be as a manager for Liverpool.

They struggled in the league but looked great in knockout competitions and they reached the finals of both, the League Cup and Europa League in his first season in-charge itself. Liverpool had an unbelievable 2018-19 season as they finished with 97 points, losing just 1 game but still lost the league to Manchester City.

Klopp also led Liverpool to consecutive Champions League finals in 2018 and 2019 as they beat Tottenham in 2019 to win their 6th European title. Liverpool then went on to win the 2019-20 Premier League title. Their first league title of the Premier League era and the first league title in 30 years!

CLUB RECORDS

MOST APPEARANCES: Ian Callaghan (857)

TOP GOALSCORER: Ian Rush (346)

FIRST DIVISION LEAGUE & PREMIER LEAGUE TITLES: 19

FA CUP TITLES: 7

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TITLES: 6

LEAGUE CUP TITLES: 8

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE TITLES: 3

FIFA CLUB WORLD CUPS: 1

CHARITY/COMMUNITY SHIELDS: 15

BETTING ON LIVERPOOL

The 19-time English league champions, 6-time Champions League winners, 3-time UEFA Cup champions, 7-time FA Cup champions and 8-time League Cup winners are the most successful side in English football, followed closely by Manchester United.

However, since the turn of the ’90s, Liverpool had been knocked off their perch as the top club of English football and what must have been even more painful for its supporters is the fact that it was their arch-rivals Manchester United that took their place at the top of English football.

Liverpool suffered a barren run in the last quarter of a century. They finished runners-up in the Premier League a total of four times, won the Champions League in dramatic fashion and even achieved a cup treble in 2001 but failed to win the Premier till 2019-20. Liverpool’s history has not been without troubles or achievements.

Liverpool betting is strongly dependent on whether they turn up or not. The gegenpressing tactic of Jurgen Klopp enables the Merseyside club to favour a strong offence, contributing to many goals scored by them.

How to Bet to Win on Liverpool

Bet on Liverpool to win most games. They have made Anfield a fortress in the Premier League and have not lost a game in almost 2 years at home! They are by far, the strongest club at home.

With an attack bolstered by Roberto Firmino, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, the Kop has not much to worry about in terms of scoring goals.

Liverpool’s Defence

Liverpool was a really poor defensive team in the league before the arrival of Virgil van Dijk. The Dutchman has been so good that he ended up winning the FIFA The Best award in 2018-19 and finished as the runner-up for the FIFA Ballon d’Or.

With Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson in goal, Liverpool does not concede too many goals and tends to keep a lot of clean sheets. The Reds can be caught off guard on the wings, however, as their fullbacks (Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson) push high up the pitch and are not the best defensively.

It is extremely difficult for teams to do so, however, given the high counter-pressing applied by Klopp’s side.

It seems to be a safe bet to go 0.5 Under goals against Liverpool and 1.5 Over goals for Liverpool.

First scorer

This one is generally a roll of the dice. It is highly likely to be Liverpool scoring first in a game with the exception of the big games against the likes of Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham.

The main question however is, who would the first goalscorer be? One would have to say it would be one of the star Africans that the Liverpool front line is led by – Sadio Mane or Mohamed Salah.

We tilt in favour of the Egyptian, Salah based on the number of goals scored. It would be good, however, to check recent results and form before betting on this so be smart and a little logical around this.

Under 2.5 cards

Liverpool is a disciplined team. The Reds do not receive too many cards so it would be a good pick to bet for under 2.5 cards for the team from Merseyside. They averaged only 1 yellow card per game in the Premier League in 2019/20!