What’s the point of having a home ground if you get nervous playing there?
A team’s home stadium should exist to give sides an extra bit of comfortability and have the crowd pile the pressure on the travelling opponents.
But Brendan Rodgers has admitted that the same home-game anxiety that he experienced when he took over the Liverpool job has crept back into the club.
Liverpool dropped two points when a Russell Martin equaliser nabbed a Norwich draw at Anfield on Sunday, meaning Liverpool have earned just four points at home this season from a possible nine.
“There’s a big history at Anfield, but you have to embrace it and ensure you take the risk because you have to do that to play positive football,” said Rodgers, after the draw.
“There was the same feeling of anxiety when I first came in, but we went on to make Anfield a real fortress for us.
“Unfortunately, we are having to rebuild that again and get the focus back on being really positive at home and I saw signs of that, particularly in the second half.”
Rodgers points to a lack of concentration as the reason behind the Norwich equaliser which arrived when the Reds defence failed to react quickly enough to a punch from Simon Mignolet.
“It was their first corner in the game,” Rodgers said.
“Our organisation was clear, we had six players in the box, everyone knew their roles. But we lost concentration and Russell Martin hooks it in, so that’s disappointing and that’s a goal which should not happen.
“Apart from that there were a lot more positives and we want to win every game here no matter who the opponent is.
“I think today was a step forward for us in terms of getting creativity back into our game and hopefully we can progress from that.”
