How Many English Premier League Titles Has Liverpool Won?

Liverpool Football Club (LFC) is one of the best teams in England. They are the most successful English club in history, winning eighteen First Division titles, and six UEFA Champions League trophies. When the new English Premier League (EPL) was formed in 1992, everything changed. Liverpool had only gone two years without a title (1989/90). However, nobody expected a three-decade wait would ensue for their first Premier League title. 

Liverpool was crowned First Division champions in 1990 and continued to challenge into the new EPL. But times changed. The club went into decline. The Merseyside club is the most successful British club, but they have not been the dominant force in English football they once were. SportsBoom poured over the history books to uncover how many English Premier League titles Liverpool has won.

Liverpool players and manager celebrating in the dressing room//Getty

Liverpool’s Premier League Decline

English top-flight football is one of the best domestic leagues in Europe. The English Premier League is the most-watched league around the world. But it was not always this way. English football had fallen into a deep decline in the 1970s and 1980s. Hooliganism was rampant, and violence accompanied every match. 

The Heysel Stadium disaster in the 1985 UEFA European Cup and the Hillsborough tragedy during the 1989 FA Cup semifinal involved Liverpool and their supporters. The Liverpool supporters’ culpability in the Heysel disaster saw England clubs banned from European competitions for five years. Less than four years later, Hillsborough brought the game to its knees. Liverpool struggled to recover in the aftermath.

The Hillsborough Memorial remembers the Hillsborough disaster//Getty

There was a football revolution in the early nineties. The Football League First Division became the English Premier League (EPL) in 1992. Liverpool’s dominance became outdated. The club’s fierce northwest rivals, Manchester United, woke from a quarter-of-a-century slumber to dominate the next thirty years of English domestic football. 

Fast-forward thirty-two years, and the Merseyside club no longer has the best top division record in England. Manchester United is the most successful Premier League team. They have won the most EPL league championships, eclipsing their hated rivals. United has won thirteen titles during the Premier League era. 

However, United have not claimed the title in eleven years. But the Reds have not fared any better despite challenging for the EPL regularly in the last several year seasons. They have only finished as runners-up five times in thirty-two years of the Premier League.

Liverpool Football Club: “A Bastian of Invincibility”

Liverpool Football Club, founded in 1892, is the second-most decorated football club in England, and one of the richest football clubs in the world. Liverpool has, however, only won one English Premier League title. The Reds won eighteen First Division titles, their first in 1901, and their last in 1990. The club went thirty years before claiming the elusive EPL trophy in 2019/20 under the charismatic Jürgen Klopp. 

Liverpool had only won four league titles by 1922. The club would go twenty-one years before claiming a fifth First Division title. The Reds would go another seventeen years without a top-flight trophy, including relegation to the Second Division in 1953/54. Enter Bill Shankly. The club would never be the same.

Bill Shankly On St George's Plateau//Getty

“My idea was to build Liverpool into a bastion of invincibility,” asserted Shankly. “You know, Napoleon had that idea, and he conquered the bloody world. “And that’s what I want. For Liverpool to be untouchable,” he added. “My idea was to build Liverpool up, and up, and up, until eventually, everyone would have to submit, and give in.”

Shankly led Liverpool to the Second Division title in 1961/62. Two years later, the Redmen were champions of England, once again. The bellowing Scotsman singlehandedly turned Liverpool around. In November 1965, he changed the kit to all-red for psychological intimidation. “Christ!” Shankly famously quipped, “The players looked like giants. And they played like giants.” He changed the nets to all-red, too. 

Shankly won two more league titles, but importantly, Liverpool won their first-ever FA Cup in 1964/65 and again in 1973/74. He solidified his legacy when the club claimed its first-ever European trophy when Liverpool won the 1972/73 UEFA Cup. Three FA Charity Shields completed the domestic trophy set. Shankly installed the famous “This is Anfield” sign above the tunnel as another psychological tactic. 

The Boot Room Legacy 

Shankly started Liverpool’s fabled Boot Room when he joined the club in 1959. The Boot Room was a small store room where the players’ boots were kept and cleaned. It became an inner sanctum for Shankly and his backroom staff during his tenure. Future managers Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Ronnie Moran, and assistants Tom Saunders and Reuben Bennett were part of the fabled Boot Room. 

Shankly retired in 1974 after the FA Cup final victory. Paisley took over and built on the foundations put in place by his fellow Scot. He became one of the most successful managers in British history. Paisley took the club to the next level. In nine years, he won six league titles, three European Cups, one UEFA Cup, and three League Cups. Liverpool became a force in Europe under the Scotsman’s guidance. 

No British manager has won five European trophies, including three European Cups/ UEFA Champions Leagues, than Paisley. When he retired in 1983, Fagan took over. Fagan is credited with cleaning out the old storage area and creating the Boot Room. Liverpool-born and bred, Fagan’s reign only lasted two seasons. 

During his stint at the helm, he won the first English treble. Liverpool won the 1983/84 First Division, the League Cup, and the European Cup. Moran only worked as an interim coach, stepping in for Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness. Besides winning twenty major honours as a player at Anfield, Dalglish led the Reds to three league titles, two FA Cups, the League, and Football League Super Cup, and three Charity Shields. 

Liverpool Player Manager Kenny Dalglish Ronnie Moran and Roy Evans Celebrate 1990 Division One Championship//Getty

Dalglish, fondly known as King Kenny, is regarded as Liverpool’s greatest-ever player. He is the most important person at Anfield. Only Shankly, Steven Gerrard, and Jurgen Klopp are revered as much as The King. Roy Evans was the last manager to be part of the Boot Room. He won one League Cup in 1994-95. 

In 1998, Moran retired, and Evans was fired from his joint role as manager. His departure ended more than forty years of Boot Room managers and coaches. In total, the Boot Room was responsible for thirty-one major trophies, and eleven Charity Shields. The Boot Room may be gone, but its legacy lives long in the memory of one of sport’s greatest institutions, Liverpool Football Club.