Alisson Becker of Liverpool celebrates on top of the goal, as Liverpool are crowned the Champions of the Premier League for the 2024/25 Season, following the Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Crystal Palace FC at Anfield on May 25, 2025 in Liverpool, England.placeholder image
Alisson Becker of Liverpool celebrates on top of the goal, as Liverpool are crowned the Champions of the Premier League for the 2024/25 Season, following the Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Crystal Palace FC at Anfield on May 25, 2025 in Liverpool, England. | Getty Images
Two of Liverpool’s current squad have revealed one big factor in their respective decisions to join the club
Alisson Becker and Florian Wirtz have both revealed how playing at Anfield before their respective moves to the club sparked the desire to move to Merseyside.
Alisson visited Anfield with AS Roma in the 2018 Champions League semi-final, with Jurgen Klopp’s side running out 5-2 winners in a game they had went 5-0 up in. Meanwhile, Wirtz got his first taste of the famous atmosphere in the most recent season with Bayer Leverkusen.
Arne Slot’s men ran out 4-0 winners against the then reigning champions of Germany in a Champions League tie in November. Both players have spoken in recent days about the impact of those respective games and how they were both influenced to join Liverpool after sampling the atmosphere in Anfield.
What Alisson Becker and Florian Wirtz said about Anfield atmosphere
“As a player, you start to imagine - ‘there’s a big club coming for me, so I have to go there [to Anfield] and give my best’. And then you lose 5-2.
“The noise was so loud. It gets inside your head. In the second half, when I changed sides to go and play in front of the Kop, a few supporters clapped and I thought ‘okay, maybe they want me to come.’
“The way the supporters were pushing the team forward, it was impossible that night, that we - Roma - would win the game. It was a crazy night. The result was not nice for me at the time but the experience was great.
“At that moment I said, ‘if this club comes for me, it is definitely a yes’.”
Meanwhile, Wirtz said after his move to Anfield: “It was really tough to play here. I was still thinking about the game when I spoke to the coach or the other guys. It was an example [of] how it can be here. As I said, it was really hard, we lost 4-0 and we had to run so much and lost almost every duel. I just wanted to be part of this team.”
Anfield atmosphere is a secret transfer weapon for the Reds
While Liverpool’s atmosphere has been consistently the subject of praise and awe from former players and pundits, it has never really been considered the impact it might have on current transfer targets.
Alisson arrived at Anfield just a few months after AS Roma’s 5-2 loss for what was a club-record move for a goalkeeper at the time. Meanwhile, Wirtz only took around seven months to join Liverpool after his first appearance on Merseyside.
The comments from both players highlight a major transfer advantage in Liverpool’s favour as they look to add more players to their squad. Two names linked with the Reds in the last week are Alexander Isak and Marc Guehi - both men have appeared against Liverpool at Anfield. It remains to be seen if getting a taste of the Anfield atmosphere is enough to help convince either of the players to make the switch.
While sporting director Richard Hughes will be tasked with trying to get the deals done - the power of Anfield could be the secret weapon to give Liverpool an edge in discussions.
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