Two wins from two games. Two goals and two clean sheets. Six points and a lot of angry fans. No, this isn’t the start of some kind of nursery rhyme and it would seem it’s much too far away from the fairytale that most Liverpool fans want. Yet the question that needs to be asked is this: how should we be taking Liverpool’s first two games of this season? Well, with a pinch of salt, really.
Liverpool have played two tough sides in their first two games. Far short of being Chelsea and City away, it is again context that should allow us to be quietly pleased with navigating two wins from games against Stoke and Bournemouth.
Playing Stoke City away is never, ever an easy match. Their fans are passionate and their team, even under Mark Hughes, is gritty, determined and has a touch of class that has barely ever been seen from the Britannia. Couple that with it being our first competitive match of the year playing against the team who left us wounded and broken last May, and all noises coming out of the fan base two weeks ago should have been about a good win in tough circumstances. Instead, a lot of fans spoke of a poor performance and tweeted about a lack of courage to attack.
Liverpool of old should always be expected to beat these types of teams. Having said that, the Premier League of old it isn’t, and teams like Stoke are signing the likes of Barcelona rejects and former Champions League winners (even if they were barely squad players, they were there) and this shows that times are different now. It’s just that lots of fans don’t take this amount of context into thinking when critiquing a result against a team “we should be battering”.
Winning the first game of the season should always be the aim for a club aiming for top four and keeping a clean sheet would be taken with open arms to any of the ‘typical’ title contenders, with the likes of Wenger or Mourinho not getting either of the above in their first game. Which do you think they would rather have? It is that context that Liverpool fans should remember when judging the match v Stoke.
Next up we had Bournemouth at home. The performance, whilst being better than Stoke wasn’t up to scratch and should always be looked to become improved upon. However, taking into consideration the oppositions need for a win, and the general feel in the camp that Liverpool’s defence needed to do all they could for a clean sheet once more, another win and another zero in the goals against column is a tidy result to take away from what is, after all, only the second game of the season. The only team to seem like they are truly purring from the word go are Manchester City, of whom realistically, are the title favourites anyway. Chelsea, Arsenal and United have all had patchy starts to the season, yet Liverpool fans want perfection from day one. They want to be Manchester City when in actual fact all we need to be concentrating on is ourselves.
We have kept two clean sheets. We also have a tough start to the season, with tough away games around every corner. To navigate these games we are going to need a confident and calculated defence and an attack that helps score goals. No matter the performance, clean sheets produce confidence and goals for some of our most important attacking players in Coutinho and Benteke will help us win games.
If Liverpool are still playing in gear two come January, then maybe it would be time to panic. But context and perspective show that most teams around us aren’t doing what we are doing right now and that is only good for us. It’s not wise to expect the performances when currently the results will do. We improved between Stoke and Bournemouth, and there is no reason to suggest we won’t see a bigger jump in quality when we arrive at the Emirates on Monday. But even if we play crap and can come away with a result, you won’t find me complaining, that’s for sure. It will just put the first two results into a better perspective for all of the moaners.
