Liverpool Can Win the Title This Season, As Long As Rafa Is in Charge

Liverpool are at the top of the league, three points clear of their nearest rival, Chelsea. Liverpool will entertain Stoke today and a win at the Britannia Stadium will extend Liverpool's lead to six points as Chelsea will only play their game against Manchester United on Sunday.

The 38 Premiership games can be separated into two parts, the first encounters against the other 19 teams and the second encounters against the 19 teams. Liverpool had completed their first encounters against the 19 teams after the 5-1 win over Newcastle. Bolton are the only side who had played two games with Liverpool this season.

Judging by Liverpool's first of two encounters with the other 19 Premiership teams, the Reds scored 32 goals and conceded 13 goals. And many would agree that Liverpool played better in the second-half of those games, including the comebacks against Manchester City and Wigan Athletic.

And therefore, I reckon that Liverpool usually play better in the second 45 minutes because Rafa knows how to stop opposing strikers and unlock opposing defenders after watching them for the first 45 minutes.

The likes of Steven Gerrard, Dirk Kuyt, and Xabi Alonso have been playing well, but Rafa's tactics played a very big role in contributing to Liverpool's current league position.

Liverpool scored 20 out of their 32 goals in the second-half and Liverpool conceded only 4 second-half goals out of the 13 goals conceded from the first encounters against the other 19 teams.

And so I made a little research of Liverpool's Premiership games since Rafa took charge in 2004. Besides his first season, Liverpool achieved better results in the second encounters against the other 19 Premiership teams for the last three seasons in most cases.

In season 2005/'06 where Liverpool finished the season with 82 points, 44 points were collected in the second encounters, slightly more compared to the 38 points from first encounters. Twenty-five goals were scored and 13 goals were conceded in the first encounters while 32 goals were scored and 12 goals were conceded in the second encounters.

In season 2006/'07, the total 68 points were collected equally from the first and second encounters respectively. However, Liverpool scored a goal more and conceded three goals less in the second encounters. Only a slight difference but the improvement can be seen.

In season 2007/'08, Liverpool collected a massive 44 points from the total 77 points in the second encounters of the season. 39 goals were scored in the second encounters, relatively more than the 28 goals from the first encounters.

Despite playing better in the second-halves of the previous seasons, Liverpool failed to win the title because they were behind by the league leaders by quite a big margin after the first 19 games.

This time around, the Reds are top of the league with 18 games remaining. Having beaten Bolton 3-0 in the second encounter, Liverpool are looking good to get more than 42 points in the second encounters.

Rafa has seen the other 19 teams and I am very positive that Rafa has figured out the suitable tactics against the teams in the second encounters.

As long as Liverpool get more than 42 points and 32 goals in the second encounters against the other 19 Premiership teams, they should be able to win the title this season and end the drought.