John Barnes

More Birthday Blues For The Reds?

Birthdays can be a real source of emotional volatility as one gets older. On the face of it, it's a great blessing to have lasted another year in a world moving at such a distressing pace, in a direction which no longer seems certain, but on the other hand, one is afflicted with terrible...

Desert Island Reds: My Dream Liverpool XI

My Desert Island Line-Up is made up of players who have represented Liverpool from 1989, when I first started supporting the club, to the present day. The formation is 4-3-3: GK Pepe Reina Liverpool have had some truly dodgy goalkeepers in the past 28 years (David James, Sander Westerveld, Jerzy Dudek to name but three) so...

Liverpool Are Lacking That One True Superstar

As Zlatan Ibrahimovic inspired Manchester United to their League Cup triumph on Sunday afternoon, it was impossible not to feel a twinge of jealousy. Liverpool’s most bitter rivals had been outplayed for much of the game against a slick Southampton side, but Ibrahimovic was ultimately the difference between the two sides. The legendary Swede has been...

Eleven Games In for Liverpool: 2016-17 vs. 1987-88

If you were fortunate enough to be at Anfield on Sunday, you probably left the ground with conflicting emotions. Watching the league leaders take the seventh place team apart while our rivals stutter was a joy to behold, but there’s a voice somewhere reminding us of false hope. Hubris kills. Title challenges come rare to...

Liverpool’s 1992 FA Cup run

A Simpler Time Looking ahead to next season I wanted to write about a time when the FA Cup still meant a great deal to all clubs and managers. Defeat to Sevilla last month ensured that Liverpool’s focus is going to be domestically fixated next term. With no European football to contend with surely Klopp will...

The Beautiful Game – The Lookers of Liverpool FC

After Liverpool announced the signing of Loris Karius my wife, who has a fleeting interest in football at best, asked if he was a footballer or model which left me thinking what would be the club's best looking team? From the ‘90s Spice Boys to the face cream team in the Nivea adverts here’s a look...

Liverpool – Hold Your Head Up High

It’s not a great time to be a Liverpool supporter right now. The league campaign – what, for many, gives the season it’s real wings – is in danger of spiralling into a damage limitation exercise. It can be grim watching the Reds; a chronic lack of pace, a blunt object seemingly incapable of...

John Barnes on Jurgen Klopp, the Academy and Pressing

Anfield Index recently celebrated the 100th episode of their main podcast, which also happened to coincide with the website's fifth birthday. A double celebration meant the pressure was on Gags to deliver a guest for the event, and like always he didn't disappoint. John Barnes appeared on episode 100 and episode 101, both are...

Return of the Jedi: Ian Rush

"A Jedi Knight? Jeez, I'm out of it for a little while, everyone gets delusions of grandeur!" Deal with it Han Solo, he’s definitely a Jedi! A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, Everton thought they were striking back. They almost did. They had the 1984/85 season where they amassed 90 points and...

Memorable Merseyside Derbies

This weekend’s Merseyside derby is arguably the biggest in years and certainly its outcome could carry particular significance for Brendan Rodgers and his future as Liverpool manager. So, in a break from all the pressure and speculation surrounding the current position of the club, I decided to take a nostalgic look back some of...