Through the first three matches of the Premier League season, Liverpool have two wins, scoring two goals and keeping three clean sheets. People are impressed -- they’re praising a rebuilt side, a team that’s brought their post-Steven Gerrard future into the present day, and talking up a strong chance of finishing in the top four.
Liverpool are better than last year, but there’s a lot of work left to do
Don’t be fooled by their near-perfect start: This Liverpool side is playing nowhere near their potential right now.
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Here's the thing, though: Liverpool haven't played well yet.
Two wins to start the season is great, make no mistake. That’s six points in the bag that no one can take away from them, and the point they took from Arsenal on the road is valuable, as well. But beating a Stoke team that practically refused to attack and a Bournemouth team that were simply overmatched -- aside from an impressive early stretch of the match and a brief fightback late that Liverpool weathered both of -- isn’t that impressive when you look at their performances as a whole.
Liverpool started the same 11 players in both of their first two matches, and looking at how they played, it's a little hard to see why. Playing with a two-man central midfield of just Jordan Henderson and James Milner hamstrung the pair's ability to get forward to support the attack. Without the more defensive-minded Emre Can on the pitch, they had to stay more disciplined and responsible. Liverpool were at their best in preseason play with Can shielding the defense, allowing Henderson and Milner to rampage forward.
For some reason, though, Brendan Rodgers decided to shelve that tactic in favor of three attacking midfielders for the first two matches -- and he did so without Roberto Firmino, Liverpool's big summer splash signing. Sure, maybe Firmino wasn't completely fit yet, having gotten a late start to his preseason because of the extra vacation time granted him following his spell with the Brazil national team at the Copa America. And it's not like he lit the world on fire in Liverpool's third match against Arsenal when he did start, at least before he started to get comfortable with his new teammates. But with how little Adam Lallana and Jordon Ibe had shown, surely Firmino was fit enough to have been involved for more than 40 minutes total in the first two matches? Starting him in those games might have made him more of a factor against Arsenal, too.
So with their attacking midfielders struggling, Liverpool have been passive and static in attack, relying on magic from Philippe Coutinho to unlock the opposing defense. That's worsened by Henderson and Milner not being able to both come up to support the attack, so it's little surprise that while Liverpool had been able to get attacks flowing at times, they've often been stymied by a lack of numbers finding space in dangerous areas.
Rodgers seemed to have seen some of his team's weaknesses heading into the Arsenal match, making a few lineup changes to try and get his team playing better. He brought Firmino and Can into the lineup -- and in an interesting twist, handed supposed outcast Lucas Leiva a start, as well, starting his best holding midfielder in a match that Liverpool would need a bit of an extra defensive edge in.
The change worked well at times, but not at others. Liverpool were certainly more effective defensively, securing a third straight clean sheet and completely stifling Arsenal's attack for long stretches of the match. They still had issues in attack early on, though, with Firmino clearly not gelled in with his teammates yet -- though as the match went on, the young Brazilian steadily improved, and the Merseyside club enjoyed long stretches of a strong-looking attack. Liverpool couldn't score even after Firmino grew more into the match and Christian Benteke ran rampant, but they looked much more potent than in previous matches, forcing a number of last-ditch challenges and top-notch saves from Cech.
The mediocre early performances don’t mean that everything is doom and gloom for Liverpool, though. There are problems, but they’re eminently fixable. A couple tweaks to their lineup and some time to adjust and adapt to new players can make them a much better balanced and more threatening team, and maybe that top four chatter can actually become a real thing to consider. We’ve already seen the first signs of those changes, and they look promising. Whether those changes actually happen or not on a long-term basis is a different matter, but at least Liverpool have clear options beyond throwing out random lineups to see what works and what doesn’t.
This is a Liverpool team with a lot of potential. They’re probably not any kind of real title contender yet, but they’re certainly a sight better than the somewhat-better-than-mediocre side we’ve seen so far, and vastly better than last season’s disappointment. Rodgers just has to figure out how to get the most out of this set of players.
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