Liverpool's Winnable Run Will Test Their True Credentials This Season

When the Premier League fixtures were released back on June 15, Liverpool were handed without doubt the toughest start to the 2016/17 campaign, drawn to play away to Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea in their first three away games.

Those three trips to London were eventually interrupted by a trip to face Burnley, too, with the Reds' first home match being swapped due to the ongoing Anfield redevelopment work.

By mid-October, Jurgen Klopp's side have now played their opening eight games, with just three at home—having hosted champions Leicester City, new boys Hull City and arch-rivals Manchester United.

But despite the tough start, Klopp's side sit nicely in the table, just two points off Manchester City and Arsenal at the top and having scored 18 goals (one fewer than the same two).

Incredibly, the one defeat has been that fixture at Burnley. Who knows how that might have played out had it been at Anfield instead.

To be undefeated from games against Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea, Leicester and Manchester United shows Liverpool have no problem playing the top teams this season.

So with that tough opening run out of the way, should supporters be optimistic about the next eight-game run, or daunted by the prospect of facing teams they perceive should be beating?

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Liverpool's next 8 Premier League games

• West Bromwich Albion (home)
• Crystal Palace (away)
• Watford (home)
• Southampton (away)
• Sunderland (home)
• Bournemouth (away)
• West Ham United (home)
• Middlesbrough (away)

Of those eight opponents, none are in the top seven of the league (Southampton in eighth are the highest-placed), and the teams have an average league position of 13th.

These are games Liverpool will be favourites for going into every game. But these are also the type of opponents Liverpool have historically struggled against.

Liverpool's results in the corresponding games last season

• West Brom (H)—Drew 2-2
• Crystal Palace (A)—Won 2-1
• Watford (H)—Won 2-0
• Southampton (A)—Lost 3-2
• Sunderland (H)—Drew 2-2
• Bournemouth (A)—Won 2-1
• West Ham (H)—Lost 3-0
• Middlesbrough (A)—N/A

So, from the seven corresponding fixtures last season, Liverpool won three, drew two and lost two—even if they were to beat new boys Middlesbrough, that results in fewer points than from the Reds' opening eight games so far this season.

The standout disappointments in that list are the horrendous 3-2 loss at Southampton after being 2-0 up and the turgid 3-0 defeat at home to West Ham in the opening weeks of the season under former manager Brendan Rodgers. Those are exactly the type of performances and results Klopp has hopefully banished from Liverpool's system.

But the defeat at Burnley hinted that such a problem may still persist. This run of eight games will test whether that was an anomaly or an issue that will continue to undermine Liverpool's ambitions, just as it did last season.

Bus-Parking Teams

"Many people think we have big problems against—how you call it—bus-parking [teams]," said Klopp back in September, per the official Liverpool website. "But I saw not a lot of space against Chelsea. I cannot remember a lot of space against Tottenham—they were with 10 men behind the ball when we had the ball. We are all involved in defending so that's how it is. We have to find solutions."

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Solutions, though, could not be found when Manchester United played a low defensive block at Anfield on Monday, with Klopp instead bemoaning his side's lack of patience.

"We lost patience much too early, that was the first problem, and then our passing game was not good anymore," said the manager, adding: "You have to do better things with it when you have the ball [...] In the last third we immediately lost patience."

After every game that doesn't result in three points, Liverpool fans are afforded the same platitudes from players about learning from the match and result.

"It was too hectic in the game and we have to do better in the next game," assessed Emre Can. "We will learn from it."

"It will again be a tough game, but I think we need to learn from our mistakes from last year when we played them here," said Lovren ahead of the visit of West Brom.

Half the problem here is that footballers are interviewed far too often these days, with media mixed zones post-match and in-house TV channels ensuring that every football cliche is fed to fans day after day.

But Liverpool's players must now do their talking on the pitch and show they are indeed learning from the mistakes of their recent past.

Klopp wants patience and controlled anger from his players—and fans—in order to help overcome opponents such as West Brom who arrive at Anfield looking to sit deep and play off set pieces.

"They want a result and I respect this so we need to find a way to play them, that's all," said Klopp in his pre-match press conference. "For this, we need what you said and what is kind of the truth, that we need to be angry but at the same moment be patient enough, all of us, the crowd and the players."

Liverpool's Pulis Problem

"West Brom is a very, very experienced team with a very experienced manager so they don't come here and want to make it easy for us or easy to enjoy for our crowd," says Klopp.

The Reds' boss is right to be worried about the visit of West Brom and, in particular, Tony Pulis. Here's a few reasons why:

• West Brom have scored the joint most goals from corners this season (four)
• Liverpool haven't beat a team managed by Pulis in the league since 2011
• Last five games against Pulis-managed teams have resulted in four draws and a defeat
• In 16 games, Pulis has only lost to Liverpool four times
• In those 16 games against Liverpool, there have been nine 0-0 scorelines
• Liverpool have drawn four of the last six meetings against West Brom
• Liverpool have won just two of the last five meetings with West Brom at Anfield

Klopp's plan, seemingly, to combat West Brom's aerial dominance, especially on set pieces, is to dominate the ball and not give them any opportunities.

“They are physical and strong, we know about this, and as long as we have the ball, they cannot do something else—they have to defend us," he told the Liverpool Echo.

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With Manchester United only having one corner at Anfield on Monday, that being in the 80th minute, that was a strategy that worked once but is risky.

"We don' defend at 100 percent on set pieces," admitted Klopp. "So we need to be really concentrated. We can’t avoid the set piece, we have to defend them really well."

With Joel Matip adding aerial ability this season, and a well-drilled and consistent defensive unit in place, Liverpool's set-piece record should improve as understanding and leadership develops. The visit of West Brom will be a big test of that.

Should Liverpool pass the test against West Brom, then perhaps other teams will need to find a different plan to overcome Klopp's side—and not sit deep and hope for an easy opportunity to be gifted to them, as was too often the case last season.

Physicality

Liverpool have had two Achilles heels in recent years—defending set pieces and coming up against physical, strong centre-forwards.

They are set to come up against plenty of these in this run of games, not least when they come up against Christian Benteke—a player who had much success against Liverpool prior to his transfer to the Reds. Troy Deeney bullied Liverpool's defence in the away fixture last season, West Ham had success in the league and cup against Liverpool by being physically commanding.

Perhaps, then, this run of eight games will test Liverpool more than their previous eight.

Come mid-December, we'll know a lot more about the true strength of this Liverpool team.