Liverpool FC: The Progression Obsession

How do you judge progress?

It's a question that, over the last few years in the world of English Football, has surrounded many EPL teams, and arguably cost managers their jobs. Right now, it seems that Liverpool are currently under the progression spotlight as much as any other team as they plow a tough and tiresome furrow towards creating the newest chapter of Liverpool Football Club.

It's a "Project," as many a chairman would put it—a modern-day footballing buzzword that, more than anything else, calls for patience and forethought from the fans before casting their opinion on the team they pay good money to cheer on 40 to 50 times a year. Liverpool's manager Brendan Rodgers seems like a man more than capable of handling the fans' and analysts' constant hole-poking in his systems and tactics.

As a matter of fact, Rodgers has had an effect on his team quicker than most expected.

Liverpool are playing intricate, attractive football that, as the players grow more and more familiar to it, becomes harder and harder to defend. The Reds' boss has also taken advantage of the young talent in the squad, giving Andre Wisdom and Raheem Sterling important roles around the first team, as well as making Sterling and Jonjo Shelvey England internationals.

Rodgers has also shown clear man-management ability, taking the likes of Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson—who looked like lost souls by the time Kenny Dalglish departed—and making them talented and potentially dangerous players that their former clubs knew and loved.

After having a distinguished "Top Four" for a while, The Barclays Premier League is slowly beginning to form a "Top Three" consisting of the wealthy trio of clubs with more zeroes on their checks than the rest: Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City.

Behind them, the fourth Champions League spot is up for grabs between Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Everton and Liverpool. For the foreseeable future, it's hard to see Liverpool getting any higher than fourth unless they spend major money—an option that's entirely against this "Project" that Rodgers and chairman Tom Werner are in the middle of putting together.

Liverpool finished 7th last season, so what would be considered "Progress" this time around?

Many fans of the Reds will tell you that the objective for this season is to earn a Champions League place, taking their spot in a competition that dominates their illustrious history. It's one thing talking about it, but it's another thing getting there. 

Taking fourth place ahead of Arsenal and Spurs will require many different things to fall into place.

Rodgers' new signings, especially Iago Aspas and Simon Mignolet, will have to contribute effectively and immediately. Players like Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge need to continue their early success at the club. Anfield will have to once again become a fortress for Liverpool, so they don't find themselves dropping points at home.

And of course, it would help if Luis Suarez decided to stay.

Liverpool are on their way towards becoming the force they were a few years ago, but it's going to take time and patience to make it happen. But in the cut-and-thrust world of modern day football, patience is not a word used often enough.