The Anfield Wrap

This Cup Of Tea show is fascinating conversation around policing at football matches, how it is changing and how it needs to change. Chief Superintendent Owen West of West Yorkshire Police has been working on the Enable project and wants football policing to become close to general event policing and away from the days gone by. Using examples from all his time at football matches, Owen talks throu...

Liverpool abject against Tottenham and The Anfield Wrap is not messing about. It's a performance and result which could come to define a season and Liverpool simply have to improve. Having gifted Tottenham four goals we work through that, the aftermath and the agony of watching a season slip away. Why can't Liverpool manage a game better or defend with their lives? What needs to change? Can it? Ne...

The Anfield Wrap on Citytalk this week is looking back at a 0-7 hammering of Maribor and looking ahead to a massive game against Tottenham at the weekend that this Liverpool side should be going into with a lot of confidence. It is a game Liverpool should be looking to win while respecting their opponent and one which they can win if previous years are anything to go by. TAW also speaks to Mary Li...

The Rider is ever so slightly out of its natural habitat and more than ever so slightly giddy. Neil Atkinson hosts in the loosest sense of the word while John Gibbons, Stephanie Heneghan and Ad Melia run riot across the show. We're all over the running, of course we are, the weekends and the stupendous new music. We want to know about your lawn, of course we do. Of course, of course. And Stephanie...

Many Liverpool fans will have heard the name Owen McVeigh, the 11 year-old Liverpool fan who tragically lost his life to Leukaemia in 2015, and even more will be familiar with the flag made in his honour and the t-shirts that have been seen the world over, but some of you may not know about the foundation set up in his memory. In to talk to Andy Heaton about the Owen McVeigh Foundation are his Dad...

Liverpool 0 Manchester United 0, but not a game where Liverpool can feel either hard done to or disappointed with themselves. With Manchester United approaching the game looking for a smash and grab, how did The Reds respond? Should they have looked to push on or did they do the right thing staying solid? How did the fullbacks do? And what should we want and expect from Maribor? With a ton of Dani...

The Anfield Wrap on Citytalk focusses all its energies on Liverpool vs Manchester United; a game which feels as though it has so much riding on it. How much of a factor is last season's game in terms of what we can expect? What about the injuries? What are the expectations? We divert briefly to chat to Martin Fitzgerald about his book Ruth And Martin's Album Club. In the studio we have Neil Atkins...

Wham heavy this week on the Rider, hosted by Neil Atkinson. He's joined by John Gibbons, Stephanie Heneghan and Adam Melia to work through Gig Of The Week, the joys of Antwerp, and Blade Runner 2049. There is also talk of the running club that never meets. The songs are the business and we end with a chat about Automatic For The People from 1992 reissued next week on its 25th anniversary. Tracklis...

Two current Liverpudlian anniversaries dominate this week's Anfield Wrap. The first is that Sunday 8th October marked the end of the second year of Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool manager. It's arguable that right now Klopp finds himself under the most pressure he has been under at the club and that he has set his own standards at a time it will be toughest to reach them. The second is that next Sunday...

A different Anfield Wrap this week sees Neil Atkinson chat away all over the place. He speaks to Scott Murray, author of The Title, the history of the football league division 1; Becky Ayres from Liverpool Sound City about their move back into the city; Michael Cox about his book The Mixer, a tactical history of The Premier League and Heather Carroll about Liverpool Ladies's start to the season. T...

"It's after 9 o'clock and we've all lost our heads." Even by its own standards this week, The Rider is a bit all over the place. We're very much pulling a late one to get you the best new music we can. We discuss Kendrick touring, Lady Gaga's documentary and far, far more and we also play 10 great songs across the 90 minutes including Gig Of The Week. We hope you like it. Tracklisting: Hercules &...

Another weekend ruined as Liverpool contrive once again to throw away a win with a painfully lacklustre and all to familiar display at St James Park. Having never recorded a win against a Rafa Benitez team, the Reds put themselves in pole position to take all three points thanks to a Phil Coutinho howitzer only to surprise absolutely no one by gifting Newcastle the softest of equalisers. Joining N...

A massive show. We have Loyle Carner in to talk about Liverpool FC, his album and tour, and Newcastle away. We are all a bit giddy. We're also joined by Peter Marshall to talk about Bill Shankly on the anniversary of his death. It's a massive weekend and a massive show. Thanks to Loyle and Peter. Neil Atkinson hosts with Dan Morgan and John Gibbons talking about kicking it into the goal harder. Le...

Another guest. They don't stop coming. A few weeks back Ghostpoet joined The Rider over the phone for a lovely chat about Margate, his new album and the tour which accompanies it and we got stuck right in with him. It was a belter; just like Dark Days & Canapes the album in question. Thanks to him for chatting gladly away. Back in what passes for the now Neil Atkinson hosts as Stephanie "Steph" He...

Everyone is still a bit giddy after Liverpool's fantastic 2-3 win over Leicester full of fight and character and no little quality. The Anfield Wrap's free show gets into all aspects of the game. There is an elongated discussion about Simon Mignolet, how the win feels, the amount of housekeeping it does and if it sets the season up from here. Neil Atkinson is joined by Ben Johnson, Rob Gutmann and...

This week's Citytalk show is a lovely long conversation between four Liverpool supporters making sense of the club's result downturn in results and the selection question marks the manager is faced with. Neil Atkinson is joined by Paul Cope, Steve Graves and John Gibbons for the sheer thrill of live TAW radio and the three look ahead to the Leicester game Learn more about your ad choices. Visit po...

A new Ladies season is upon us and The Anfield Wrap has a new free show looking at the new season, new signings and the first game of the season against Everton. On the show we speak to new signing Bethany England, manager Scott Rogers, young, emerging prospect Amy Rodgers and captain Gemma Bonner. Everyone is open, honest and excited. A new, bigger winter campaign and a new start for the league....

Cavalier Song are in for a chat about their new album "A Deep Well" and their tour in the next week or so. The album is available here from Bandcamp: https://godunknownrecords.bandcamp.com/album/a-deep-well Beyond that everyone went to see LCD Soundsystem and 3 of the 4 Riderers (Neil Atkinson, Stephanie Heneghan, John Gibbons and Adam Melia) remember how good it was. Which one doesn't? Find out....

GARETH Roberts is joined by Professor Clifford Stott, a researcher into crowds, riots and policing to discuss recent events in football including the Arsenal v FC Köln match, the reaction to fans celebrating Manchester City’s late goal at Bournemouth and more. There is a also a wider discussion in this free Cup of Tea show about perception of football fans and how that can be challenged and change...

The Anfield Wrap this week is looking back on a disappointing week for Liverpool, crowned by a frustrating performance against Burnley. Discussing how Liverpool have failed to score 4 or more against a bottom 13 side this calendar year and that even 3s have been rare, the discussion isn't just that of the defending. Philippe Coutinho's predilection for shots from distance has returned. Did Liverpo...

A packed hour of radio from The Anfield Wrap with a chat about Sevilla, Liverpool's work in the community and a look ahead to Burnley all on the agenda. Sevilla was a major disappointment for The Reds, having played some excellent football. Tony Barrett joins us to talk about the work Liverpool have been doing in the community. Sean Rogers joins to look ahead to Burnley and then John Gibbons and P...

The Rider this week has a guest! Craig Pennington from both Bido Lito and Liverpool PsychFest is in the house and he tons of Psych to talk about with the marvellous festival on the horizon. He picks a song and chats about the work done to make this year's festival one he is very excited about. Elsewhere John Gibbons has left a ton of things to do and disappeared off meaning Neil Atkinson, Steph He...

Cup of Tea: Les Lawson Les Lawson is a name familiar to many Reds as the secretary of the Merseyside branch of the official Liverpool Supporters' Club. This summer, Les, despite leading what he believed to be a relatively healthy lifestyle, suffered a heart attack. Here, he speaks to Gareth Roberts and John Gibbons about what happened, his recovery, his roots as a Red and his proud record of atten...

A dreadful result but how bad was the performance? Well a couple of The Anfield Wrap thinks it was really rather abject from Liverpool against Manchester City and that both players and manager should be expecting more and better. Both the defence and the midfield three come under real criticism and the key decision of the game is discussed at length. Was Jon Moss right to send Mane off? Was it a t...

As Liverpool enter a crucial part of the season, John Gibbons is joined by Simon Hughes, Dan Fieldsend and Mike Nevin to analyse the international break from a Liverpool point of view and look forward to a massive game away at Manchester City. In part 2 we also speak to Simon about his new book On The Brink, which focuses on the current state of football at all levels in the North West of England....