Paul Scholes gives damning verdict on Anfield’s atmosphere

Paul Scholes gives damning verdict on Anfield’s atmosphere Anfield Fear Factor Fading as Liverpool Home Form Raises Serious Questions Anfield used to do half the job before kick-off. Opponents arrived knowing the noise would be relentless, the pressure immediate and the margin for error tiny. That edge has dulled. The numbers say so, the eye test says so, and now former elite players are saying it out loud. Liverpool have drawn at home with Nottingham Forest and Fulham in the opening month of the season. Across the 2026 calendar year, they have won only four of 12 Premier League matches at Anfield. That is not a blip, it is a pattern. Add in the late stumbles from last season and the winless run at home in the league is now four games. For a club that built title challenges on suffocating home intensity, those returns are poor. There is no need to dress it up. Two recent performances could have ended even worse. Liverpool needed major interventions from Jeremy Jacquet in both matches to avoid defeat. When your centre-back is repeatedly acting as the emergency brake at home, something in the overall structure is off. Liverpool home form tells its own story The criticism from Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt will not be welcomed by many Liverpool supporters, but it is hard to dismiss. Speaking alongside James Milner, both pointed to the same issue, Anfield no longer feels like the same ordeal for visiting sides. Scholes put it plainly: “When you go to Liverpool, especially when James was there, when Jurgen Klopp was there, the crowd played such a major part. It feels like that’s gone… I don’t think the fans are quite on board at the minute with what’s happening there. “When we used to go there, I’d think, ‘Bloody hell, how are we going to get the ball?’, because they were on top of you. Teams seem to have a lot more possession and look a bit more comfortable than they ever have.” That is the key point. Opposition teams are getting time on the ball. They are settling into games. They are not being swallowed by the environment. Anfield has not become easy, but it has become manageable, and that is a major change. Butt made a similar point, and again there is not much room for argument. He said: “The likes of Fulham five years ago are going to Anfield and they’re beaten before they even go up the steps. You see them looking across at James’ team and they’re going, ‘How am I going to compete with these?’ “When you lose that and you give them a little bit of hope, they’re thinking, ‘I’m playing at Anfield. I want these to come and buy me, so I’m going to go and show how good I am’. That transpires right through the team and you end up with results like you’re getting.” Anfield atmosphere and team performance are tied together This is where the discussion usually becomes emotional. It should stay practical. Atmosphere does matter, but it does not exist in a vacuum. Crowds respond to what they see. If the football is flat, predictable or hesitant, the stadium will reflect it. That does not let supporters off the hook entirely. A ground like Anfield has always prided itself on driving the team through difficult moments. But the relationship runs both ways. The players need to give the crowd something to latch onto, intensity, aggression, risk, purpose. Without that, frustration spreads quickly. The sight of supporters heading for the exits early against Fulham did not go unnoticed. Nor should it. For years, opponents talked about surviving the opening 15 minutes at Anfield. Now they are talking about growing into games there. That is a serious shift in psychology. Liverpool have already dropped more points at home inside the first month of this campaign than they did in the entire 2019-20 title-winning season. Those are not decorative statistics, they define standards. Right now, those standards are not being met. Andoni Iraola needs a response quickly Andoni Iraola is still early in the job, but that buys only limited patience at a club of this size. Home form is the fastest way to shape the mood around a team, and the mood matters. If Anfield becomes anxious, every misplaced pass feels heavier, every delay in tempo becomes more obvious, every opponent gains encouragement. Liverpool’s next home fixtures have to start changing the narrative. Tottenham Hotspur arriving without a goal this season should present an opportunity. No one needs a grand statement. They need a convincing display, control of the game, intensity without the ball and enough quality to finish the job. This does not require nostalgia for Klopp’s best days. It requires a reset in basics. Start fast. Press properly. Move the ball with purpose. Make opponents feel under siege again. Anfield still has the history, the size and the symbolism. What it lacks at the moment is menace. Until Liverpool restore that, teams will keep turning up believing they can take something, and too often, they will be right.