On Wednesday night, amid a backdrop of renewed belief and banners bearing his face, Jurgen Klopp will oversee his 50th game as Liverpool manager after just 217 days in charge.
Chelsea will be the visitors to Anfield and no Reds boss in history has reached the half-century mark quicker than the German, with Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan requiring over five weeks more to achieve that figure.
Klopp secured his first victory in the Premier League over the Stamford Bridge side - the 3-1 away success at the end of October a sample of his ‘heavy metal’ football - a win that sparked the theory that Liverpool would be better on their travels than on their own turf.
Klopp had taken charge of three games at Anfield, which resulted in two draws and a laboured 1-0 League Cup triumph over Bournemouth, before the trip to Chelsea, and he admitted his players were hampered at home. "I really don't understand this pressure in this moment but the guys feel it and you can see it,” he said.
"I wouldn't say it is a negative mentality. First of all you have to recognise it is like it is, it is not a sickness and you can change everything.”
Klopp took it further by claiming he “felt pretty alone” in the stadium, with fans leaving en masse after Scott Dann scored on 82 minutes to hand Crystal Palace a 2-1 win in November, but he vowed there would be a turnaround.
Fast forward a few months and Anfield is no longer intimidating to Liverpool’s players; it is now their weapon of intimidation. They are unbeaten in 12 games in front of their own supporters, a run stretching back to the end of January.
In that sequence, Manchester City have been annihilated 3-0, their neighbours United thoroughly outplayed 2-0 in the Europa League last-16, Tottenham’s title challenge was dented in a 1-1 draw - and all that was before the real magic started.
In preparation for their second leg of the continental quarter-final against Klopp’s former side Borussia Dortmund, Liverpool swatted away Stoke City 4-1.
Four days later, one of the most riveting European nights unfolded under Anfield’s floodlights. The Bundesliga side were 2-0 up at half-time, but Dejan Lovren’s header in stoppage time condemned them to a 4-3 defeat and they exited the competition 5-4 on aggregate.
Dortmund manager Thomas Tuchel insisted there could be no tactical explanation for Liverpool’s comeback, only an emotive one. “It was an atmosphere where everybody, except our supporters, believed it was meant to be,” he said.
Klopp agreed with his counterpart that only one team were certain of victory as the match wore on. “You could hear it, you could feel it and you could smell it," he said.
An employee of BVB, who worked throughout the 48-year-old’s tenure at the Westfalenstadion, exclaimed at full-time: “This is a Jurgen Klopp team. This is what he does. He gets everyone to come together, to believe, and makes it ‘us against the world.’”
Those facets were on display again in the 4-0 Merseyside Derby slaughtering of Everton and in the semi-final of the Europa League, where Liverpool conceded in the penultimate minute of the first-leg to Villarreal at El Madrigal. The players were not sulking, they were seething and they all echoed Klopp’s message: “Wait till we get them back at Anfield.”
When they did, the Liga outfit were outplayed in every department as Liverpool won 3-0 and booked a showdown with Sevilla in the final on May 18.
Anfield has been integral to their European campaign, with supporters lining the streets two hours prior to kick off with red flares, swirling scarves and complete confidence that they can will their team on to glory.
Klopp’s transformation of the atmosphere in the stadium has been as remarkable as his reconstruction of the team in an intense seven months.
The difference is big. When I came here we had a few problems at home," he explained.
"We didn't score often enough, the opponent didn't need too many chances to score, and that was not too cool. We also had the set-piece [issue].
"We created some stability, that's the truth. We worked longer together, that helps, it always helps in life and football.
"Of course, if you can create atmospheres at Anfield like we did sometimes, then it should be a real force, a real strength, this stadium.
"Next year I'm really looking forward to the new stand and we will have more people in the stadium - that will be great.
"To be successful it's important that you win games and to use the advantage of a home game is the first step in the right direction."
Liverpool will look to use that advantage against Chelsea in their final Anfield game of the season on Wednesday. In 2010, the Blues were the last team Rafael Benitez faced at home as Reds boss. Two years later, it was the same for Kenny Dalglish. There will no such repeat in midweek, with Anfield able to have pride in the end-of-season lap of honour again.
Klopp no longer feels “pretty alone” at home. He now beats his chests, pumps up the crowd and fully understands the fabled ‘This is Anfield’ effect.
Of course, Chelsea know it well too. Jose Mourinho still moans about Luis Garcia's 'ghost goal' scored on the ground in the 2005 Champions League semi-final, and Liverpool will look to haunt them again.
There may not be much riding on the penultimate league game of the season for either side, but the enmity of this fixture will ensure a fired-up match. - Goal