How Liverpool Can Set the Tone for the Season over the Next 3 Weeks

With the international break over, it’s time to get back to business in the Premier League. Last year’s runners-up, Liverpool, will be looking to continue their good form after easily handling Tottenham in 3-0 win before the break.

The Reds now enter a stretch of seven matches in a three-week span and mounting injuries are becoming slightly concerning for Brendan Rodgers.

Unfortunately for Liverpool, they could have to go through this stretch without Daniel Sturridge and Emre Can. Sturridge picked up a thigh strain while on duty with England, and Can suffered an ankle injury with Germany’s U21 squad. Sturridge is expected to miss up to three weeks while Can could miss up to six.

Brendan Rodgers has publicly voiced his displeasure with Sturridge’s injury saying: "We're disappointed because we feel it was an injury which could have been prevented."

Going forward, this could prove to be an issue for Liverpool during the next 21 days. With Luis Suarez gone, Sturridge is very much Liverpool’s No. 1 striker. Without him Rodgers loses some depth at the striker position and will have to rely on Mario Balotelli, Rickie Lambert and Fabio Borini.

Can’s absence doesn’t affect the club much, as he’s still a bench player at this juncture and is not going to get the starting nod over Steven Gerrard, Jordan Henderson, Lucas Leiva, Adam Lallana or even Joe Allen, though Allen is also nursing an injury.

With Lallana back and seemingly ready to feature against Aston Villa, the focus shifts towards the injury to Sturridge.

Last season the English striker scored 21 goals, a mark only bettered by team-mate Luis Suarez.

He’s scored one goal in his first three games this season while team-mate and fellow countryman Raheem Sterling leads the Reds with two goals. The absence of Sturridge will most likely see Balotelli start as the lone striker, which gives Rodgers the ability play another midfielder.

The Reds’ fixture against Aston Villa will set the tone for their next few weeks and will provide clues as to how Rodgers will adjust to the loss of Sturridge and Can.

Villa have had an impressive start to the season, securing seven of nine points and failing to lose a game, but now they travel to Anfield, where Liverpool have been almost unstoppable as of late.

What should be an easy task for Liverpool will prove to be more difficult than one would think, and this is evidenced by Liverpool’s last five games against Villa in which they’ve won two, drawn two and lost one.

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But notice that Liverpool are considerable favourites when playing at home and score an average of over two goals per game. When the two met at Anfield last year the result was a 2-2 draw that saw the Reds come back from a two-goal deficit thanks to goals from Sturridge and Gerrard.

Sterling is most likely going to be given a rest following his spell with England, which should see Philippe Coutinho reclaim the playmaking role and Lazar Markovic or Lallana start out wide. If Markovic starts this could be to a breakout game for the 20-year-old, who has been excellent in his substitute appearances and has linked up with Alberto Moreno extremely well.

Having Coutinho and/or Markovic in the midfield and a lone striker would give Rodgers an opportunity to tinker with his midfield diamond that did so well last year.

It should be a routine win for the Reds even though Aston Villa have looked lively this term, albeit against weaker opposition.

Luckily for the Reds, Villa will be without Christian Benteke for this match, as the Belgian striker is still recovering from his torn Achilles. This puts pressure on Andreas Weimann to be the go-to forward, and while he’s been the main creator this season for the Villains, he’ll be hard-pressed to do so in front of the Kop.

A 2-0 Liverpool win should be the result for this one, but Villa will make the Reds work for it.

Their next imposing fixture comes against Merseyside rivals Everton on September 27th. This hotly contested derby has produced three draws in four of its last four occurrences, with Liverpool’s emphatic 4-0 victory being the solitary win.

Everton have been lacklustre so far this season and have sorely missed the services of Ross Barkley. They’ve let leads slip against Leicester and Arsenal and before the international break were exposed by Chelsea in a 6-3 shootout.

Liverpool will surely miss the services of Daniel Sturridge in this game, as he’s scored three goals in the last two Merseyside derbies.

This won’t be a walk in the park by any means. Roberto Martinez’s Everton are coming off the back of an impressive fifth-place finish and signed Romelu Lukaku from Chelsea. While the Belgian has been ineffective so far, it’s only a matter of time before he gets rolling, and he did score in the 3-3 draw at Goodison Park last year.

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Looking at the match history of the Merseyside derby shows just how tight it is, but this match is at Anfield, where Liverpool have won nearly 42 percent of their matches against Everton.

Liverpool have won two of the last three Merseryside derbies played at Anfield, outscoring the Toffees 6-1 during those games.

Rodgers will likely stick with whatever formation he uses against Aston Villa, but Raheem Sterling won’t be rested for this one unless he picks up a knock.

This is a match that Liverpool must win, as they can’t let up any ground this early in their hunt to retain a Champions League spot. It’s always hard to predict a result for the derby, but being at Anfield gives Liverpool a big advantage.

There will be goals in this one: 3-2 Liverpool would be a fitting result for the first Merseyside derby of the 2014/15 season. Martinez won’t make it easy for Rodgers, but the Reds are a better team overall and should come out on top.

Following their match with Everton the Reds will play their second Champions League group-stage match against Swiss champions Basel. Luckily for Liverpool, Basel sold chief playmaker Mohammed Salah last season—a transfer that most Liverpool fans will remember, seeing as Chelsea and Jose Mourinho hijacked the move.

Playing in St. Jakob-Park won’t be easy for Liverpool, as Basel only lost two home games last year in all competitions. They even managed to beat Chelsea twice.

This is Liverpool's first real Champions League test of the 2014 season, though they can’t overlook their first match against Bulgarian side Ludogorets Razgrad. They’ll need wins out of these matches if they want to keep pace with Real Madrid, who surely won’t slip up against the minnows of the group.

Out of the seven match they’ve to play, Liverpool need only worry about three, but in the recent past Liverpool have lost the games they were heavy favourites to win. They must make a real statement of intent by getting through this stretch without giving up points to mid-table teams in the Premier League and must make a good showing in the Champions League.

They’ve been without Sturridge when Suarez was around, but now the Reds will have to rely on Balotelli to pick up the slack. He looked lively in his 60 minutes against Tottenham and should’ve scored, but now that he’s the lone man up top he’ll have to convert and give his team-mates the lift they need.

Rodgers will have his work cut out with him being down two important men, but he did extremely well last year with a thin squad, so Liverpool fans will be hoping that he can manage this stretch.

The loss of Can really isn’t the worst thing for Liverpool, but it certainly will throw a wrench into the youngster's development.

With Lallana back there’s no real concern in that midfield area and that’s where Liverpool were very thin last year. Provided Balotelli, Lambert and Borini stay fit during this stretch, the Reds really shouldn’t have any trouble outside of the Merseyside derby.

This will be time for bit-part players and new acquisitions to get a shot at earning a starting spot and possibly make a case for a permanent place in the first team.

If this were a tougher set of fixtures, there would be much more to prove for Liverpool, but these injuries really came at the best time possible, as their next difficult fixture comes over a month away when they host Real Madrid.

Sturridge will have returned from injury by then, and he’ll have the match against QPR to get his feet wet and regain some fitness.

Five of their seven matches during this stretch are at Anfield, which bodes well for the Reds and will make life easier for Sturridge and Can’s stand-ins, playing in front of their home fans—something that can easily sway the tempo and outcome of a match.