Liverpool will soon discover the fate of its biggest transfer gamble from the summer window, and 219 Premier League moments early in the season prove it.
By beating West Ham 3-1 last weekend, Liverpool moved into sole possession of second place in the Premier League table behind Manchester City after a few weeks of sharing it.
The Reds opened up a two-point advantage over Arsenal and Spurs, who played out a thrilling 2-2 draw in the North London derby at the Emirates Stadium.
In the next 11 days, though, Jürgen Klopp’s men will face the two sides below them in the top four, first undertaking a trip to Spurs (fourth) on Saturday evening before heading down to the south coast to take on Brighton (third) the following weekend.
Questions can be asked of both teams defensively, but going forward they have been fearsome so far. Brighton sits third in expected goals (12.5) and has been devastatingly clinical, scoring two more (18) than anybody else in the league and averaging exactly three a game. Spurs (15) isn’t far behind and sits level with a Liverpool attack some would regard as the best in world football.
Transformed under new manager Ange Postecoglou after a miserable season of conservative football under Antonio Conte, Tottenham leads the division for shots (114), with Brighton close behind in second (105).
In short, both teams have created chances at will up to this point, and will be confident of hurting Liverpool too. As good as Klopp’s side has been, it has conceded 12 big chances already, an average of exactly two per match. A more ruthless opponent could have punished it by now.
These matches, then, represent not only a test of Liverpool’s title credentials, but also of the biggest gamble it took in this summer’s transfer window — electing not to spend big on a specialist replacement for Fabinho, who left midway through the summer.
Liverpool did invest $21m (£16m/€19m) in Wataru Endō, a move Klopp called “genius”, but the 30-year-old arrived with little pedigree and has only made one Premier League start from five available matches so far, indicating he’s not necessarily first-choice.
Klopp has favored a predominant number eight in Alexis Mac Allister, and while the Argentine is a clear upgrade on his predecessor Fabinho on the ball, there have been a few understandable defensive lapses.
We’ve already made the case that Endō may be most valuable against the top sides, and the manager definitely faces a dilemma ahead of this daunting away double-header.
If he goes with Mac Allister, he’ll see whether his makeshift solution will suffice, and if he brings in Endō, he’ll get a true indication of the level of his only senior, out-and-out number six.
These games, then, will go a long way to demonstrating Liverpool’s ceiling for the 2023/24 campaign. The big question — one will that soon be answered — is whether the defense has enough protection against the best attacking teams in the league.
