It may be a small sample size of two games, but this is still officially Liverpool's worst start to the season under Jurgen Klopp.
Which already makes next Monday’s visit to Old Trafford and a wounded Manchester United already look something seismic for both clubs. In the old football, the game as we knew it before this rivalry for the ages between Manchester City and Klopp’s side, a stuttering start of two draws in the first two games means nothing in the scheme of things, of course.
But football has changed. The top sides lose so rarely, even a draw is seen as significant, as evidenced by the fact over the past six seasons, the team finishing top has dropped only an average of 19 points in each campaign.
Take out the virtually full covid season without fans, and that drops to an average of 17 points per season. Which makes dropping four points in your first two games as Liverpool have done, look careless in the extreme. Especially when Manchester City have signed the world’s best goalscorer.
If 17 points dropped in total is the new norm, then Liverpool have only 13 more to play with. It seems daunting. They can lose only four matches, in effect.
Maybe that is why there was so much anguish around Anfield on Monday night when Palace arrived with a determined gameplan, and executed it with ruthless intent, causing frustration which boiled over in Darwin Nunez’s inexplicable red card.
In all Klopp’s seven years at Anfield, his worst start came in his first full season, 2016-17, when his emerging Liverpool team won at Arsenal but then lost at Burnley in their first two matches. That was the season when their home ground was being redeveloped, and they played the first three matches away from home - drawing at Spurs in the third game too.
So victory at Old Trafford is already looking essential as they head to Manchester for the next league game…by which time City could be seven points ahead in the Premier League table, after their visit to Newcastle.
Which is why there was so much urgency when Liverpool went down to 10 men against Palace…and why each of their players focused swiftly on the task of the United game straight afterwards. Harvey Elliott, one of the better players on Monday night, summed it up perfectly. “We just need to make sure we get the three points now,” he said sternly.
“There were a lot of positives from tonight – a lot more than the Fulham game, so it’s a stepping stone for us. Man United is always going to be a tough game away at their place. We’re just going to be fully focused and with full fight and hopefully we can go in and put it right this time.”
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And James Milner too, was able to focus on the positives as Liverpool at least created a plethora of chances against Palace, even if they squandered most of them. “It is not the best start to the season, but we need to keep playing how we started and ended the game,” he said.
“It is disappointing but ultimately it is good that we are creating chances. If you are not creating them that is worse. The reaction going down to 10 men was very good and Luis scored a brilliant goal.”
Perhaps the best response came from Jurgen Klopp though. “So, now we have a point more than before the game. I can imagine what kind of articles and headlines and commentaries that leads [to] but that’s life. So, we will go from here.”
With a wry smile, Klopp pointed out that the season is just two games old, and much drama is yet to unfold. He may have added, wisely, that towards the end January of last season, they trailed City by 15 points at one point. They finished a single point behind barely three months later.
Put in that context, four points to make up over the course of 36 more matches doesn’t look quite so daunting after all.
