As the year 2010 draws to a finale, it has been a year of change both on and off the pitch for Liverpool Football Club. With the former vilified owners seen off via the High Court, the business of getting back on track on the playing side has not been as straight-forward as would have been hoped.

One thing which has remained constant throughout the calendar year, under both ownerships and more significantly under both Rafa Benitez and Roy Hodgson is the inability of Liverpool to win Premier League games away from home.

Their record in 2011 reads:

Played 18, Won 2, Drew 7, Lost 9, with the only victories coming at Burnley (4-0 in April) and Bolton (via Maxi’s last gasp winner on Halloween).

Looking back over Liverpool’s records they have only managed to record less wins away from Anfield in two previous calendar years – in 1911 and 1936, when they won a single match in each of those years.

Ominously in 1910-11 LFC finished 13^th, going on to finish the 1911-12 season in 17^th place.

Even worse the final standings in 1935-36 and 1936-37 showed the club languishing in 19^th and 18^th place respectively.

The current tally of two away wins equals that of the years 1953 and 1954 (Liverpool were relegated in 1953-54), and 1992 (6^th place both sides of the New Year).

It is a mystery to many why football teams’ performances vary so vastly between games played on their own ground and away from home. This is more evident than in most other sports. Even in cricket where groundsman can prepare a pitch to suit the make-up of the team’s bowling attack, the imbalance between home and away results is not as marked.

Liverpool have managed a positive away record (in terms of wins vs losses) in 30 years, whereas the record has registered negative on 63 occasions. In fact only eight single years pre-1970 saw Liverpool win more games away from home than they lost.

The golden period for away successes , unsurprisingly was in the 1980’s when the club had a positive away record for nine successive years.  Interestingly the only two other periods Liverpool had three consecutive successful away years were in the current decade.

In years 2001 to 2003 inclusive the record was W10 D6 L3, W10 D3 L6, and W8 D4 L6 under Gerard Houllier.

In years 2007, 08 and 09 the record reads W9 D5 L4, W10 D6 L3 and W10 D3 L6 respectively.

For the record Liverpool FCs best calendar years in terms of away (league) records are:-

1)      1982 …   Won 14 Drew 6 Lost 4

2)      1986 …   Won 12 Drew 3 Lost 5

3)      1979 …   Won 11 Drew 7 Lost 2

4)      1905 …   Won 11 Drew 0 Lost 6

5)      1978 …   Won 11 Drew 3 Lost 6

6)      1922 …   Won 11 Drew 4 Lost 7

The forgettable years are as follows:-

1)      1936 …   Won 1 Drew 8 Lost 15

2)      1911 …   Won 11 Drew 4 Lost 11

3)      1953 …   Won  2 Drew 0 Lost 21

4)      1954 …    Won  2 Lost 4 Lost 15

5)      1992 …   Won  2 Drew 6   Lost 11

6)      2010 …   Won  2  Drew 7   Lost 9

One final sobering thought. In each of the last three years (which included the successful years of 2008 and 2009) Liverpool have failed to win their first two away games of the year. Hopefully this year this trend will be bucked.

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This week it is Liverpool WAG Alex Curran!

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