The source material from this week's blog is taken primarily from 'The Anatomy of Liverpool: A History in Ten Matches', by Jonathan Wilson with Scott Murray and 'The Official Treasures of Liverpool FC', by David Walmsley with Stephen Done. The latter was a very kind gift from Marguerite Madden Murphy, whose husband Pat is a Blackburn Rovers fan (the relevance of that will become apparent below!).
Liverpool's future stars
Over the past couple of weeks I have been reflecting on Liverpool’s 2019-2020 season,
simultaneously the most sublime and, thanks to COVID-19, the strangest in living memory. Among the countless highs of
a near perfect season, one of the rare defeats was the League Cup exit against
Aston Villa on December 17th 2019, when a team of Liverpool
youngsters with an average age of just 19 went down 5-0 to a much more
experienced Villa side.
High squad numbers and young ages - Liverpool's future stars and their youngest ever team went down 5-0 to Aston Villa last December
World Champions
Just a few days later in Doha the Liverpool first team,
deployed to what was deemed a more important battle than the League Cup, earned a
hard fought extra time victory over Flamengo of Brazil to become World
Champions for the first time. In the story of the season, that League Cup loss to Aston Villa will come with
an asterisk attached, in view of the youth and inexperience of the team that
Liverpool fielded and the fact that our big guns were on their way to Doha
instead of being available in Villa Park that night.
Aston Villa and Liverpool - the 1899 match
But the 5-0 defeat to
Villa comes with an asterisk of historical significance too, because one
hundred and twenty years earlier Liverpool suffered an identical defeat at the
same ground to the same club in a game of much more significance. That match, played on April 29th 1899, is the first of ten key matches
that are described in Jonathan Wilson and Scott Murray’s masterful ‘The Anatomy
of Liverpool: A History in Ten Matches’. The 1899 Villa game was the last match of the 1888-1889
season and Liverpool and Aston Villa were tied at the top of the First Division
table: this was the first time that the league title was to be decided by the
top two teams facing off against each other on the last day of the season.
As an example of why hardcopies are always better than e-books, see above the very special autograph on my copy of 'The Anatomy of Liverpool'
1989 - goal difference, goals scored and goal ratios...
For Liverpool fans of my
generation, the idea of a league championship season being decided on the last day induces immediate
traumatic memories of May 1989, when Michael Thomas scored that last minute
goal for Arsenal at Anfield to snatch the title from us, not even on goal
difference but on goals scored during the season. And reading about the first years of the Football League has only added to my sense of pain and bitter disappointment from that night and the reason is as follows.
Firstly, here's the final table for the 1988-1989 season:
As you can see, Liverpool and Arsenal had remarkably similar seasons - winning, losing and drawing the same number of games as each other. When points are level at the end of a season, goal difference (goals scored minus goals conceded for the season) is used to decide the winner. But as you can see, goal difference for Liverpool and Arsenal was identical too. The next step is to look at goals scored and, as you can see again, Arsenal scored more than Liverpool so they were declared champions. Had Liverpool held on at Anfield that night and lost just 1-0 instead of 2-0 then they would have been champions. That's how tight it was.
To add even more agony to the above table, I have recently discovered the 19th/early 20th century concept of 'goals ratio'. This was used instead of the modern 'goal difference' to place teams back in the early days of the football league and it involved dividing 'goals scored' for the season by 'goals conceded'. Based on the goals ratio rule, Arsenal had a 'goals ratio' of 73/36 (i.e. 2.03). However, Liverpool would have had a final ratio in 1988-1989 of 65/28 (i.e. 2.32) and would thus have been the champions if the 1899 system was still in use, putting us joint top of the roll of honour right now, with 20 titles. Groan.
Of all
the footballing highs and lows in a lifetime supporting Liverpool (leaving aside the Heysel and Hillsborough stadium disasters), that night in May 1989 was undoubtedly the
lowest low in pure football terms, added to now by my discovery of that old concept of 'goals ratio'.
Anfield, May 26th 1989. Michael Thomas scores a last minute goal to take the First Division title from Liverpool's grasp
And a few seconds earlier - Steve McMahon letting his Liverpool team-mates know that there was only one minute left to play (I had blocked out this memory until recently reminded by my friend Warren Noonan, a lifelong Arsenal fan)
Back to the 19th Century...
But one of the comforts of history is that it teaches us that bad things, such as May 1989, are always happening and that things can always be worse. And even though it’s hard to believe, the last day of Liverpool’s 1898-1899 was actually worse than that Anfield night to come ninety years later.
Already twenty five years in
existence in 1899 and going for a record fourth league title to become the
undisputed kingpins of English football, Aston Villa had a slightly better goal ratio going into that last game, so a draw would suffice for them. In
contrast to Villa’s pedigree, Liverpool were very much the new kids in the
English league, having only been formed in 1892 when a dispute over the rent at
Anfield led to Everton (the original occupiers of the sacred ground) walking
out on Anfield owner and Everton Director John Houlding. Everton went on to buy their new ground on Mere Green, Goodison Road.
So John Houlding was left
with a stadium but no team. He set about rectifying the situation quickly,
appointing two Irishmen as Liverpool’s first managers (the term 'secretary' was then used). Monaghan man John
McKenna and Dubliner William Barclay put together a team made up primarily of Scots, to become known as 'The Team of the Macs'. The Scots were noted for skillful, passing football in comparison to the more agricultural 'kick and rush' game played in England, hence the scouting mission north of the border.
Incidentally, Barclay was the one who suggested the new name for the club: Liverpool Athletic Football Club (someone subsequently omitted the word 'Athletic' in the paperwork).
John Houlding (1833-1902), businessman and brewer, founder of Liverpool FC and Lord Mayor of Liverpool
John McKenna (1855-1936), Liverpool's first (joint) manager and subsequent President of the Football League. He was also instrumental in starting works on building the 'Spion Kop' at Anfield
John McKenna's plaque - Glaslough, Co. Monaghan
William Edward Barclay (1857-1917), Liverpool's other first (joint) manager
Liverpool's first team photo, 1892 - known as 'The Team of the Macs', with the panel consisting of 15 Scots and 4 Englishmen
Pictured above are:
(Back row): Joe McQue, John McCartney, Andrew Hannah (Liverpool's first captain), Sidney Ross, Matt McQueen, Duncan McClean, James McBride, A. Dick (Trainer)
(Front row): Thomas Wyllie, John Smith, John Miller, Malcolm McVean (Liverpool's first league goalscorer) and Hugh McQueen
Denied entry to the Football League at the first time of asking, Liverpool competed in and won the Lancashire
League in their first season. John McKenna then had the foresight and drive to push for a second try at getting into the Football League, with Liverpool gaining entry to the Second
Division for the 1893-1894 season. They duly won the division and were
immediately promoted to the top flight, following a play-off (or 'Test') victory over Manchester United's precursors Newton Heath.
Liverpool then had another relegation and promotion before finally starting to consolidate as a First Division team, helped largely by the acquisition from Sunderland of Tom Watson, the most successful manager of his time. Again the Irishmen McKenna and Barclay were instrumental in luring Watson from Sunderland, a club he had already led to three First Division titles. Watson remains Liverpool's longest serving manager, dying from pneumonia at the age of 56, while still in his management post.
Tom Watson and Jurgen Klopp
Coming back to the present again, it is hard not to draw some parallels between the descriptions of Tom Watson and Liverpool's current manager Jurgen Klopp. 'Olympian' of Sketch magazine wrote 'Superficial followers of the game would not think that the success of a team would be affected by secretaryship (i.e. management), but I make so bold as to say that the various triumphs of the Sunderland Club have been not a little influenced by Mr. Watson's personality. Mr. Watson had a good eye for football talent. Big names did not move him so much as real abiliity...'
Another comparison between Watson and Klopp was that Watson also managed a world championship winning team, when he led Sunderland (as English champions) in their defeat of Hearts (Scottish champions) on April 27th 1895. Again highlighting the dominance of Scottish footballers at the time, every player lining out in that match, for both Sunderland and Hearts, was a Scot. When Watson subsequently led Liverpool to a 3-0 victory over Rangers in 1888, the Edinburgh Evening News referred to Liverpool as 'the finest team in the world', something that would ultimately come true last December in Doha.
Watson, in winning three First Division titles with Sunderland and subsequent titles with Liverpool in 1900-1901 and 1905-1906 would also become the first manager to achieve top flight success with more than one club, a feat that has only been matched subsequently by Herbert Chapman, Brian Clough and the provider of the earlier referenced autograph on my copy of 'The Anatomy of Liverpool'. Watson's arrival for the 1896-1897 season also coincided with Liverpool adopting red jerseys for the first time. Prior to that, Liverpool had worn blue and white halved jerseys, similar to the modern Blackburn Rovers kit.
Tom Watson (1859-1915) Liverpool's longest serving manager (1896-1915)
Liverpool (1893-1894 season) in pre-Watson
blue and white 'Backburn Rovers' style jerseys (this photograph was taken at the bowling green of the Sandon Hotel, owned by Liverpool founder John Houlding, who sits in the middle of the front row with the ball between his feet)
As for that last match of the 1898-1899 season again, the descriptions of the
crowds and the match itself have echoes of modern games, with just over 41,000 in attendance and thousands travelling south from Liverpool, 'who could be easily singled out by reason of the red favours which they sported in their hats and buttonholes' (this being long before the days of replica jerseys and even football scarves). Liverpool and Aston Villa were tied on the same number of points but Villa, with a superior goal ratio (of just 0.02) needed only a draw to become champions, while Liverpool needed to win.
As it turned out, the match was over as a contest by half-time, Villa having scored all their five goals by then, thus claiming their fourth title and leapfrogging Sunderland to the top of the roll of honour and establishing themselves as the kingpins of the game.
Liverpool's 1898-1899 team - denied their first top flight title
on the last day of the season
It would be two more seasons before Liverpool would clinch their maiden First Division title, in the 1900-1901 season, managed by Watson and captained by the Scottish defender and Liverpool's first superstar player, Alex Raisbeck. An inspirational captain who played at centre-half, he was the Virgil van Dijk of his day.
While scouting for the more skillful players north of the border in Scotland was revolutionary in its day and both Liverpool and Sunderland were noted for this practice, Liverpool now boasts a panel of players from all over the world, like all Premier League clubs. The current 36 man squad is drawn from 19 different countries from all over Europe, Africa and South America, with Takumi Minamino earlier this year becoming Liverpool's first Japanese signing.
In comparison to the 'Team of the Macs' of the late 19th Century, there is now only one Scot on the Liverpool panel. That sole Scot is Andy Roberston, the attacking left full back who, combined with Trent Alexander-Arnold on the right side, has changed the way the game is played.
And finally, a coincidence. The Liverpool teams of 1898 through to 1902 had not one but two Robertsons, also full-backs and, of course, both Scottish.
John Thomas Robertson (1875-1923)
Played 42 times for Liverpool between 1900 and 1902,
winning a First Division medal in 1900-1901
Tommy Robertson (1876-1941)
Played 126 times for Liverpool, between 1898 and 1902,
also picking up a First Division medal in 1900-1901
Meanwhile, the current Scottish Roberston, Andy,
who has just won his first title with Liverpool
(and who scored an absolute peach of a headed goal
against Burnley at Anfield yesterday)
The 1890s - Liverpool FC's first decade in summary
1892-1893
- Liverpool FC officially formed after Everton FC walk out of Anfield
- Liverpool win Lancashire League and Liverpool Senior Cup
- Election to Football League, Second Division
- FA Cup: 3rd round
1893-1894
- Liverpool win Second Division and gain promotion to First Division after 'Test' match victory over Newton Heath (the original Manchester United!)
- FA Cup: 3rd round
1894-1895
- Liverpool relegated from First Division after one season in the top flight
- FA Cup: 2nd round
1895-1896
- Liverpool win Second Division again and duly promoted
- FA Cup: 2nd round
1896-1897
- Tom Watson takes over as manager
- First season of red jerseys!
- 5th in First Division
- FA Cup: semi-final
1897-1898
- 9th in First Division
- FA Cup: 3rd round
1898-1899
- 2nd in First Division
- FA Cup: semi-final
1899-1900
- 10th in First Division
- FA Cup: 2nd round
And finally, two bookends, with Liverpool's very first and then most recent league championship winning squads:
Title number 1 - champions for the first time - the Liverpool team of 1901-1902 pose with the trophy for the First Division, won for the 1900-1901 season. Liverpool's captain and first superhero, Alex Raisbeck, is sitting to the right of the trophy
Title number 19 - England's current league champions
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