No goals, no fans as Blues stall Reds’ title bid

● Liverpool appear blunted since start of lockdown ● Derby played in eerie silence

EVERTON

Stadiums without fans are like books without words, iphones without screens, a body without a soul. They all still exist as physical entities, but there is something fundamentally missing from them.

It is something we are getting a glimpse of for the first time as football plays on through the pandemic.

Never has that been clearer than a Merseyside derby, one of the most feverish rivalries in world sport, played behind closed doors, lacking the ebb and flow of the crowd noise conducted by the movement of the ball, the chances on goal, the tempo of the play.

There could not be a starker example that concluding the 2019-20 season is about anything but money. The upper echelons of English football appear to have made peace with that (at least, the detractors are no longer speaking publicly about their disagreement) but the sooner this sixweek box-ticking exercise is over the better.

At Goodison Park, the corridors and stairways – the stadiums veins, usually thronging with people, were silent and empty. On some stairways yellow and black tape was strung haphazardly across metal railings blocking the way, as though a murder had recently been committed.

Throughout the game, a lone saxophonist played songs including Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart and the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine from a street outside the stadium. Somehow, it added a sombre tone.

Liverpool will still claim the Premier League title, but after winning only a point in their first match back they now rely on Burnley to get something against Manchester City tonight to be able to secure the trophy at Anfield against Crystal Palace on Wednesday.

Perhaps it will take slightly longer. They do not look quite the same Liverpool as before play was suspended. Not quite as sharp, nor incisive. In the final ten minutes, Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson had to save well from Dominic Calvertlewin’s backheel before Tom Davies’ rebound struck a post.

The season remains largely about tying up these loose ends in front of some TV cameras. Meanwhile, we knew there would be an increased risk of player injury and James Milner was the latest sacrifice, subbed off shortly before halftime. Hopefully the injuries will be minor and not careerdamaging before the season concludes.

But thank the football gods that the Football Association is leading discussions with government about getting supporters back in by September, be that in socially-distanced traffic flows, limited capacity crowds, digital health passports. Whatever it takes so that professional football no longer has to be played without spectators present.

It actually bodes well for supporters, really. The magic that fans bring to stadiums often feels like an afterthought when the TV companies and club executives get together, when supporters are charged increasingly exorbitant sums for season tickets, or matches are scheduled for live broadcast so away fans cannot catch the last train back, or are moved at late notice so hundreds of pounds are lost on disused train fares and hotel bookings.

It is not even about the advantages and disadvantages of playing home or away. Home support can be a burden as well as a benefit. Had the atmosphere turned angry and agitated as Liverpool played much of the match in Everton’s half, or when midway through the second half they had almost 70 per cent possession, it could have had a far greater detrimental effect on Everton’s defending. As it was, both sides shared only a single shot on a target in the first 45 minutes and Everton could have won it.

There are still plenty of new sights we are getting used to and the video of Liverpool’s players getting ready in portable cabins in the Goodison 2 Everton’s Tom Davies sees his shot beat Liverpool goalkeeper Alysson only to agonisingly come back off a post in the Merseyside derby

Park car park will not be quickly forgotten. Nor having their digital health passports scanned as they left the team buses to enter the stadium.

Sadio Mane, below, was so excited about the restart that when referee Mike Dean – who sent Twitter into a flutter debuting his new lockdown beard – blew the whistle to start, the Senegalese sprinted up the wing, forgetting that everyone else was briefly taking a knee, in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, before kicking off.

The absence of crowd noise revealed much about the leaders on the pitch. Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk and Jordan Henderson are as influential and vocal as you would imagine. Everton and England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford sounds like a walking foghorn.

Even so, it was refreshing to hear that the screams and shouts of the players and managers usually drowned out were not full of complex tactical requests – “execute the gegenpress!” – but the same calls you would hear on amateur pitches the length and breadth of the country: “Time!” “Man on!” “Ref!” “Yes Bobby!” “Arrggghhh!” “Away!” “Switch on!” “Holllld!”

So it will be no great loss when they can no longer be heard.