Don Hutchison belongs to a select club of Everton captains who have won at Anfield. But it is not the 1999 win at their arch-rivals – earned via a display of industry and endeavour that was the peak of the Walter Smith era – that sticks in his mind.
“We played really well, the perfect performance really, and deserved the win, but the thing that will never be repeated was what happened the morning after,” he recalls.
“I was captain so Walter pulled me and said, ‘Get the lads to report to the car park in their full tracksuits.’ I thought it was a bit strange, the lads couldn’t really understand as it was usually a light warm down day after a weekend.
“He pulled up in the team coach and took us right into the heart of Liverpool city centre for a fry up in our Everton tracksuits. We swanned around town all morning like we owned the city. It was absolutely brilliant.
“He wanted us to shake off the inferiority complex that Everton had around the game, to show that we were equals and it’s always stuck with me.”
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Everton went another 21 years without a win at their nearest neighbours and their solitary victory since then, in 2021, was achieved without supporters as the Premier League played out in sterile, behind-closed-doors conditions that followed the Covid pandemic.
They have rarely turned up at Anfield in rude health and a few short weeks ago would have been fearful of further hurt. But the appointment of Sean Dyche and the remarkable win over Arsenal that followed, combined with Liverpool’s desperate form, has helped turn expectations on their head.
Sensing the walls closing in after the humiliation at Molineux, Klopp handed his players two days off at the start of the week. They have returned in better shape, he contends, but Anfield will be edgy.
“The pressure is on Jurgen Klopp for sure,” Hutchison says.
“But I am conflicted because I actually think it’s the perfect game for Liverpool to get their form back. Fans find it crazy when you say it but Wolves, Bournemouth or Southampton are the last type of team you want to play when you’re struggling for form.
“The dynamic is totally different when you play those teams, you’re expected to win. The Merseyside derby is different, there’s no team talk required, there’s no negativity from the fans and the manager will look around his dressing room and know every player is up for it.”
Hutchison criss-crossed Stanley Park in his career, following a short spell as a young player at Liverpool with a more decorated stint at Goodison Park.
A blood-and-thunder sort of midfielder who has turned into an insightful pundit, he finds it easy to put his finger on what players need to do to win a derby.
“For me it was easy. I used to play my best football in that kind of Merseyside derby atmosphere,” he says.
“I won at Newcastle with Sunderland and at Wembley with Scotland. They are brilliant games to play in, high octane, no holds barred. You don’t need a team talk, you just need to get wired in.
“I had a 50/50 with Didi Hamann early on and went over the top a bit. I got a bit of the ball but also his ankle and that sort of set the tone. I had another one with Jamie Redknapp 15 minutes later and he got the same treatment but it was one of those sorts of games.
“It’s changed a bit but setting the tone is absolutely key.”
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Liverpool are wobbling under Klopp, who is facing the first set of searching questions of his Anfield tenure.
“Anyone criticising him is an idiot. He’s conquered the world – he won the title, the European Cup and World Club Cup in a short space of time – and that gives him time and credibility,” Hutchison says.
“They need to rebuild, they probably need a bit more energy and legs in midfield but this is a bad five months from a very good six-and-a-half years.”
Everton’s problems are just as acute, a toxic atmosphere having built as a result of perceived boardroom failings and an inability to strengthen a squad struggling badly.
Having said that, a managerial search that first alighted on Marcelo Bielsa before Dyche was ultimately appointed is looking positively serene compared to Leeds’s travails. And with Southampton also now looking for a new manager, they appear to have appointed their man in the nick of time.
Hutchison sees much to admire in Dyche, who reminds him of his former boss Smith on account of his honesty and commitment to “Evertonian values”.
“I honestly think he should have been the Everton manager six or seven years ago,” he said.
“The two marry up really well. Everton fans demand hard work, commitment, sweat and a desire to win. It’s exactly what he brings.
“It’s nice to have a Carlo Ancelotti but unless you’re trying to take the Champions League, which is a pipe dream at the moment, the man you want to have is Dyche. If they lose a game it won’t be because they don’t fancy it.”
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