For David Moyes, Anfield has become the stuff of nightmares.
Twenty one matches managed there, no wins, 14 defeats and 36 goals conceded – and the Everton boss isn’t expecting life to get any easier when the Toffees visit runaway league leaders Liverpool in the Premier League on Wednesday.
Moyes, 61, whose Everton side are 36 points behind Liverpool, said: “We might be further away from Liverpool than we have ever been at the moment.
“When we left here, we were much closer to Liverpool, we were competitive, competing around the same areas in the league. At the moment it is probably the biggest gulf between the two clubs.”
A look at the history books shows Moyes is right. This is the biggest points gap there has ever been before a Merseyside derby that Moyes has been in charge of Everton in.
Moyes’ 19 Premier League games without a win at Anfield is also the longest any manager has gone in the competition without victory at the ground.
A dozen of those matches came during his first spell in charge of Everton, with his side gaining seven draws and seven defeats. He also lost in his only match at Anfield when Manchester United boss and again when in charge of Sunderland.
While West Ham manager, he was in charge of seven games at Liverpool, losing them all, with his most recent visit there seeing the Reds secure a 5-1 thrashing in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup in December 2023.
He said: “Yeh. I don’t want it [the record]. I want to win. I want to make sure I get rid of it.
“Everytime we go there, it presents another chance to do so.
“I would be lying if I said I look forward to going there all the time because it is such a hard place to get results. It is nothing to do with the surroundings or the pitch, they have always produced good teams.”
Revitalised Everton in good form since Moyes’ return
Moyes began his second spell in charge of Everton in January, replacing the sacked Sean Dyche with the Toffees 16th in the Premier League – one point clear of the relegation zone – with only three wins from 19 games.
They lost 1-0 at home in Moyes’ first league game since his return, but his side have been unbeaten since then, apart from a 2-0 home loss to Bournemouth in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
Wins against Tottenham, Brighton, Leicester and Crystal Palace, along with five draws, have taken Everton 17 points clear of the relegation zone with the team almost guaranteed to be playing in the top flight when they move to their new stadium at Bramley Moore Dock for the beginning of the 2025-26 season.
One of those draws was an incredible 2-2 in the last Merseyside Derby to be staged at Goodison Park as James Tarkowski’s equaliser in the eighth minute of added time earned Everton a draw.
Since Moyes’ return to the club, Everton have gained 17 points, the fifth highest in the Premier League, although runaway leaders Liverpool, with 23 points in the same period, also sit on top of that table.
But does Moyes have any special plans to stop the Premier League’s form player Mohamed Salah?
“We could try and build a wall or something to stop him but he is such a talented player but we done quite a good job on him in the first game,” he said.
“We will have to hope we can do something similar in this game.
“He is having an unbelievable season for Liverpool but we are talking about one of the top Premier League players of this generation.”
Red cards and controversy – but no victories
Moyes first game at Anfield came all the way back in December 2002, when Everton were unlucky to not leave with three points as substitute Wayne Rooney hit the crossbar in a goalless draw.
Liverpool should have also gone down to 10 men with Steven Gerrard getting away with a two-footed lunge on Gary Naismith, only for the Reds midfielder to later get a retrospective three-match ban for the challenge.
Gerrard did get a red card after only 18 minutes of Moyes’ fourth away Merseyside Derby, in March 2006, but that did not stop the hosts going on to record a 3-1 home win.
Everton only scored four goals in Moyes’ first nine matches at Anfield, but did get on the scoresheet twice in January 2011 but it was not enough as Liverpool, in Kenny Dalglish’s first home game since his return as manager, fought back from 2-1 down to get a 2-2 draw.
Gerrard scored a hat-trick in Liverpool’s 3-0 win in March 2012 and Moyes then came close to beating the Reds at Anfield in May 2013 when Everton had a potential goal controversially disallowed in another 0-0 draw.
Four month later, Moyes, now in charge of Manchester United, saw his new side lose 1-0 after an early goal from Daniel Sturridge.
Moyes’ next job in English football came at Sunderland and he took them to Anfield once, resulting in a 2-0 loss in November 2016.
During his two spells at West Ham, Moyes managed seven games against Liverpool away, losing them all, despite his team holding the lead in two matches in 2020, before losing 3-2 and 2-1.
His last trip to Anfield resulted in his heaviest defeat there, the 5-1 Carabao Cup thrashing.
An Anfield curse?
In 19 Premier League games at Anfield, Moyes’ sides drew six and lost 13.
But that has not been the only venue to have caused the Scot problems.
He constantly struggled at Stamford Bridge, winning none, drawing seven and losing 12 of his league games there, while Arsenal away was a near-constant frustration – with five out of five defeats at Highbury and only one win and four draws from 15 matches after the Gunners relocated to Emirates Stadium.
But Moyes is not the only manager in Premier League history to struggle at certain grounds.
Harry Redknapp lost all 15 league matches at Old Trafford, although did guide West Ham to an FA Cup fourth-round win over Manchester United there in 2001.
Mark Hughes, Sam Allardyce and Tony Pulis all lost 10 out of 10 league matches at Emirates Stadium against Arsenal and former Manchester United defender Steve Bruce never relished his returns to Old Trafford, with one draw and 12 defeats from 13 away games as a manager.
