It's early days... very early days. But the signs so far are promising. I know it's only four games in, but if Liverpool can beat Southampton on Saturday, we will go four points clear (briefly).
I know you can't really pay too much attention to it just yet, but given that by this stage of the season we're usually looking over our shoulder into the relegation zone.. well, OK not actually looking at relegation, but lurking about in 14th or worse.
We're currently on 10 points from four games.. It took us 9 games to get to 10 points last season. Nine!! Now that is relegation form.Although we were a bit unlucky early on, we were also pretty shit on occasion as well.
After a season to bed in and get used to the place, Brendan Rodgers seems to be finding his feet. The fact that the press haven't been banging on about Suarez quite so much is proof of that. You can imagine what it would have been like if we had been 14th about now. "Suarez will be off in January" etc.
If you're sat at the top of the league, then the players who aren't playing don't appear to be all that important all of a sudden. Bill Shankly used to deal with injured players in a similar fashion, if you weren't playing then you weren't of much relevance to the next game. I can imagine Luis Suarez being handled slightly differently back then.. or perhaps when Graeme Souness was a player rather than sat in a TV studio. Actually if been about when Souness was in charge, we'd have barely noticed Suarez antics among the general wreckage of the team... I'm getting off topic.
The fixtures from now until the trip to Arsenal at the start of November look winnable, especially if the current form continues. Arsenal's fixtures up until that point don't look particularly threatening either, so there is the possibility of that being a top two clash.. Even then it'll still be early days, and we do have a history of wobbling in November, but we are operating at the pointy end for once and long may it continue.
One thing that does need to be addressed is our habit of switching off in games. We have taken the lead in the first half of every game we have played so far this season. And we have been relatively comfortable in those first halves.. more or less. Average possession stats for our first halves this season is apparently 55.6%.. now I don't generally set too much by Sky obsession with possession stats, but this one is telling. Our average possession in the 2nd half of games is 37.4%!!!
That is not a team controlling games.. admittedly we have been leading for pretty much all that time, apart from when Swansea equalised, but this is something that Rodgers' needs to address urgently. Whether it's fitness, or more likely confidence.. backing off to hold what we have, I'm not sure. But when the likes of Notts County can put you on the back foot to the extent that they did, then questions need to be asked.
One possible solution could be the return of Suarez... if we carry more of a goal threat then teams will back off. If we have Suarez and Sturridge in form then the prospect being better off than 1-0 up is very real. Even with the loss of Coutinho for a few weeks, hopefully Suarez's return will mean that is less of an issue.
We need to rack up as many points as possible, pretty obvious I know, but it starts to get trickier around Christmas, but if we're keep up momentum then anything possible.
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