Why Liverpool Fans Leaving Anfield Early Isn't a Unique Issue

"After the goal on 82 minutes, with 12 minutes to go, I saw many people leaving the stadium. I felt pretty alone at this moment"—the words of Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp after his side's 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace last month.

The German's words hit the headlines, despite the manager asking the assembled media at his post-match press conference not to make a big deal of them.

Klopp made the comments about fans leaving early and was later asked to discuss them further, to which he replied:

"

If you want, for the future, that I say what I think, then don't make it bigger than what I said.

I am disappointed, they have reasons, I have never been out of the stadium with 10 minutes to play, maybe it's easier to get out, but there are reasons for this. But we are responsible, that nobody can leave the stadium, because everything [anything] can happen, and that's what we have to show.

"

What Klopp was actually saying was that it's the responsibility of him and his players, commenting: "We decide when it is over. Between 82 and 94 [minutes] you can make eight goals if you like."

There's no doubt Klopp was surprised to see fans leaving Anfield early, as explained in the Liverpool Echo by Sascha Klaverkamp, the chief editor at Dortmund-based newspaper Ruhr Nachrichten, who covered the club throughout Klopp’s trophy-laden seven-year spell at the Westfalenstadion:

"

Klopp always knew that the fans would stay from the first minute until the last minute.

The fans wouldn’t leave early even if Dortmund were losing 4-0. It will have been a new thing for him to see that happening at Anfield.

For Klopp, it’s very important for him to have a special relationship with the fans in the stadium.

"

Leaving early isn't as common in Dortmund as it is at Anfield, but that's the case for German football versus English football and the match-going culture that surrounds the two countries.

Truth is, the issue of fans leaving early isn't unique to Liverpool. It's commonplace at every English stadium. Check any Premier League game and you see fans leaving early.

Ask anybody who has tried to leave Stamford Bridge or White Hart Lane after full-time about the wait for the tube that ensues.

A Spurs fan called Ben told the Telegraph: "At White Hart Lane, the London Overground train after final whistle is basically unusable. If you leave a couple of minutes before the whistle you’re saving yourself an hour wait for a train."

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Anfield in particular is a difficult stadium to get away from due to the non-existent public transport infrastructure surrounding the stadium. "It's normal for Liverpool fans to leave early because traffic and parking around Anfield is horrendous," explained the Telegraph's Merseyside correspondent Chris Bascombe. "And it is not a new thing: as far back as the 1970s Tommy Smith used to have a go at early leavers."

"In defence of fans who leave, clubs don't care about the shocking travel infrastructure, which at Anfield has not evolved in the last 60 years. It has got worse, too, probably because more drive to games now and want to get away quick."

Anfield's nearest train station is Liverpool Lime Street, in the city centre, over two miles away. Anyone who has tried to get a bus from Anfield to town after a match knows how long that journey can take.

The poor public transport was one of the factors former owners Tom Hicks and George Gillet would have had to have addressed had they got their Stanley Park Stadium off the ground.

If poor public transport is reason one, then reason two is just as straight forward: what's been happening on the pitch over the last 18 months.

Liverpool supporters have become accustomed to the sight of away fans celebrating a point or three at Anfield of late. Anfield is not the fortress it once was, Bournemouth, West Ham United, Norwich City, FC Sion, Rubin Kazan, Crystal Palace and Southampton have all taken points away from the famous stadium this season alone.

Once the team gets back to winning ways, there'll be more belief that the side can grab the goal they require—which is what Klopp was saying with his words after the Palace defeat. Not many were leaving early when the Reds were in the running for the title two seasons ago.

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But there are some who will have left early even then, for reasons beyond their control. People may say you don't leave the cinema early, but then you don't go to the cinema with 45,000 people present.

Liverpool's early leavers are plentiful, and many are regulars in the Main Stand, people who are the older demographic of match-going supporters. There's reasons they may need to leave early to avoid the crowds. Leaving early is habitual, and like Bascombe explained, it's been apparent since the 70s, when Liverpool dominated English football.

As Alan Tyers explained in his piece for the Telegraph on the issue of fans leaving early, it's far from something that's unique to Anfield, Liverpool, football, or even England. Tyers cites examples from rugby union, NFL, baseball and numerous non-sporting events.

Klopp told the media not to make a big deal of his words, which were somewhat lost in translation, and the media made a mountain out of a molehill.

Of course we'd prefer for fans not to leave early, but some are hamstrung by genuine reasons to leave early, and when results aren't the best, that's the way it will always be. Fans need inspiration from those on the pitch. That's just society.

Ultimately, it's much ado about nothing.