IT is said the darkest hour is right before dawn, for the past three seasons Liverpool’s league performances have reached the lowest possible lows for a club of its stature.
A sixth place finish in the 2010-2011 season followed by an eighth place finish in the 2011-2012 season and a seventh place finish last season has seen the club miss out on qualification to the arguably the biggest tournament in football, the UEFA Champions League. We have not even come close to a fourth place finish; even our rivals from across Merseyside have been able to finish above us in the last two years.
The 2013-2014 has seen us get off to as good a start as we could have dreamt of, wins over Stoke City and Aston Villa in the opening two Premier league fixtures where followed by an unconvincing 4-2 win over Notts County in the Capital One Cup; a win which suggested that we are still the same side from the past few seasons, a side which loses concentration in critical parts of the game.
Then came the confidence boosting win over Man Utd last weekend, the win propelled us to the top of the league standings for the first time since January 2009 and got a lot of people talking. Though it’s still too early to start celebrating what we have seen so far this term suggests that we are moving in the right direction.
We have not been overly convincing; it took a last minute penalty save from summer signing Simon Mignolet for us to get the points against Stoke and he was at it a week later against Aston Villa when he saved a Christian Benteke shot to guarantee us another three points. Our second half performances have not been as good as manager Brendan Rodgers would have liked but we have been able to get maximum points in all our three encounters. This has all been down to a very disciplined defence and a reliable goalkeeper, no matter how the team performs offensively if it does not concede goals it is bound to be successful.
We have done smart business in the summer transfer window, we have cut our losses by selling Andy Carroll and Stewart Downing, number one goalkeeper Pepe Reina has also been loaned out to Napoli, Jay Spearing was sold to Bolton Wanderers and Jonjo Shelvey joined Swansea for a fee of around £5 million. A number of young players such as Suso, Conor Coady and Fabio Borini have also been sent out on loan so as to get more playing time. Eight players have joined the side with highly rated French defender Mamadou Sakho being the most expensive of the lot costing a fee rumoured to be £18 million.
Kolo Toure, Glen Johnson, Ally Cissoko and Sebastian Coates are all injured at the moment but there is little panic at Anfield highlighting that this time around the club has depth in defence. The addition of Victor Moses has given us another option upfront and with Luis Suarez returning in two games time our attack will only get better. Captain Steven Gerrard is adjusting nicely to his deeper role as seen by the number of interceptions and tackles he made against Man Utd. Lucas is slowly getting back into shape and the ever improving Jordan Henderson is winning a lot of fans even though he is being played out wide.
Joe Allen is the only natural cover for the defensive midfield position, which is the only position which looks thin in terms of options, we just hope that there will not be lengthy injuries and untimely suspensions to Gerrard and Lucas. Coutinho has not been at his best over the last two league games, hopefully he will come back firing after the international break. With no European competition to disrupt us we can expect a fresher squad with fewer injuries.
The team is as confident as ever, unlike last season we cannot complain much about the fixture list, if the fans are going to be as vocal in every home game as they where in the game against Man Utd not many teams will relish a visit to Anfield.
A lot of obstacles lie ahead we have to work hard on our offensive aspect of the game and killing off games if we are to counter the threat of our opponents who have also significantly improved their squads. Hard times are bound to fall on us at some stage of the season but, if we can take advantage of our good start to the season and build from here we may find ourselves in a very good position come the end of the season.
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this run will end by next few matches…
illiterate whopper.
Enemy just watch and see liverpool lifting trophies this term ok
Lol!!!!!!,you mother f**ker.
Liverpool are not small club,many think its still begining of the season but to me this season is our,we can even the tittle if it means winning coz we not small teams like say westbrom,swansea city to drop drastically after a good start 2 the season
Swansea and West Brom have not had a good start?
O ye of little memory!
Good start, good for confidence but article correct. We have shown slight improvements and relied on a lot of luck our first two. We need to be more clinical and finish teams off, a complaint not addressed at all in my book. Aspas has yet to convince me and with Moses arrivjbguI can see Aspas hit the bench sooner rather than later.
My arse, Aspas’ awareness and technique is exceptional, look at his positioning, always available, just needs to bulk up and develop trust with teammates!
who dsnt need luck hw many times last season dd man u got luck three points is three points
Yea. Relied on luck????
The stoke game could have been 6 0 without a whole heap of luck going stokes way. Justified 1-0 winners against av and closed the game down well against united.
Scary thing is what might happen if luck actually does go our way. Oh and there is a guy called Suarez coming back in 2 weeks!
Liverpool a not small club,many think its still begining of the season but to me this season is ours,we can even win de tittle if it means winning coz we a not small teams like say westbrom,swansea city 2 drop drastically afta a gud start 2 de season
Whatever a ‘tittle’ is, it sounds like something worth winning a couple of times…
Shane, unless u were not keen enough last season, west brom & swansea city had better start
Ah leave Shane alone, he’s only 7!
. It’s too early to say we have done smart business this summer. These new signings havent proven anything
To even talk about winning the title is silly . Top 4 looks unlikely….but let’s wait and see
Alberto looked sharp when he came on in last game, Aspas also, no good if you don’t pass to them when they’re in better positions though!
—————-mignolet—————-
jonson—sakho—–agger—cissokho
——–gerrard———–lucas——–
—————coutinho—————–
suarez——–sturridge——–moses
Lets just hope thing’s go our way seems like since fergie retired all the luck is going our way
how do i become a columnist for this site?
Learn a bit of punctuation!
Where is @Stevieg with all his negative comments!!
Not the same any more without his inane thoughts.
Good work Rodgers and well done FSG, maybe this will entice him out..
YNWA
Good start to the season i hope liverpool keep it up
I think everything is possible .we can challenge for the league .YNWA
Asap has a great pass that cuts defence apart its a pity these chances fall to the likes of henderson.even though henderson has improve in beefing up midfield his finish is poor…moses is better as an impact player coz his link up play isnt the most fluid as he takes on defenders more to often…january wil present us opportunity to bring that special player in.coutinho has become selfish in the last two games not releasing the ball on time.
I’m really interested in what Brendan has planned for sakho because he is a left footed centre back. How is he going to play with agger. Or is agger on his way to barca. Or will sakho play in the LB role. Will we play 3 5 2 formation. One things for sure..you cannot play two left footed centre backs. It just doesn’t happen.
u cn play them if necessary
Obviously read Carraghers article in the DM . But I disagree NOTHING is impossible
no no no baba u got it wrong upfront its like ths mosses sturridge suarez thts hw thy gonna oprt
obviously there is sign of good times ahead. We are coming good