‘That one still hurts, particularly because it cost us the title. It was doubly sad for Stevie. Being a club legend and having such bad luck, we all felt for him. The title was so close’ Martin Skrtel on Liverpool’s 2014 title near-miss

Despite a semi-regular flow of success in Europe and in the domestic cups, Liverpool were in the midst of a two-and-a-half-decade title drought in the middle of the 2010s.

For a while during the 2013/14 campaign, it looked like Brendan Rodgers was the man to bring the title back to Anfield, with a post-Christmas 16-game winning streak seeing them move top of the Premier League table.

Liverpool had Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge supplying the goals in front of a midfield that featured Steven Gerrard, Raheem Sterling, Jordan Henderson and Philippe Coutinho. Martin Skrtel led the defence that season and he believes it was a special side.

Martin Skrtel on Liverpool’s 2013-14 ups and downs

“It just all fit perfectly,” Skrtel recalls to FourFourTwo. “Right from the beginning of 2014 we started winning every game and we were playing well. Until that game against Chelsea, it all seemed great.”

That Chelsea game, which saw an 11-game winning streak snapped when the Blues claimed a 2-0 win at Anfield blew the title race wide open and has gone down in Liverpool infamy for that slip by Gerrard.

“That one still hurts, particularly because it cost us the title,” Skrtel admits. “It was doubly sad for Stevie. Being a club legend and having such bad luck, we all felt for him.

“The title was so close but we had to accept the outcome. That’s football. Sometimes it’s beautiful, but sometimes it can be very harsh. The thing is, you never know what will happen in England. The never-say-die mentality is renowned.

“But the way we performed in the spring of 2014, the way we dominated, was incredible. After winning 3-2 at home against Manchester City, we started to believe it could be our time. I’m not saying we were dead certain, but we’d started to believe.

“Unfortunately, that loss against Chelsea disrupted us. With hindsight, perhaps a few things could have been done differently in that match, but it’s in the past now. It’s not a nice memory.”

In Rodgers, Liverpool had a big personality in charge, so does Skrtel remember his manager’s half-time message, which came moments after Gerrard’s slip let Demba Ba give the Blues the lead in first-half stoppage time?

“Not exactly, but we supported each other in the dressing room. There was still time and we could still overturn the one-goal deficit. But that afternoon, unfortunately, things didn’t go our way.”

For more than a decade, Joe Mewis has worked in football journalism as a reporter and editor. Mewis has had stints at Mirror Football and LeedsLive among others and worked at FourFourTwo throughout Euro 2024, reporting on the tournament. In addition to his journalist work, Mewis is also the author of four football history books that include times on Leeds United and the England national team. Now working as a digital marketing coordinator at Harrogate Town, too, Mewis counts some of his best career moments as being in the iconic Spygate press conference under Marcelo Bielsa and seeing his beloved Leeds lift the Championship trophy during lockdown.