May as well be first...I think we're going to seriously challenge for the title.

I am not being dismissive of us flattening the minnows, and if this thread was named "May as well be first.... I think we can finish top 4", I would agree that beating the minnows may be enough. To win the title imo you need to do more than just beat the poor sides, you need to hold your own against the better sides too.

At the moment we are gaining our success against the poorer sides because most poor sides play with one idea in mind, park the bus and try to hit the other team on the break. Then when it gets late in the game try to snatch the win with a late goal. (We have suffered for years from it, mainly because we were a counter attacking team who often looked uncomfortable when given too much possession)

Now we play much more as a possession based attacking team with two strikers and one in behind so with no pressure on our midfield and 2 strikers playing the way Louis and Sturridge have been, this plays to our strengths. We are now getting the goals and by the time the poorer sides know what has happened we are hopefully 2 or three goals infront. 

The problem lies with the teams that instead of just sitting back .....pressurize us high in midfield, give us no time on the ball to pick our passes and cut off the supply to our strikers. Sadly I don't believe it will take even the poorer sides long to figure this out, while against the better sides we have seen already over the past year that we struggle when they press us.

A lot of the poorer sides thankfully don't have the players to really adapt and play a high pressure game.....sadly the bigger clubs do.

So again I am not being dismissive of our beating the smaller clubs.... just trying to be realistic about just how far beating the smaller clubs can take us.

I'd go as far as saying 18 in our next 8 will leave us challenging and only picking up half the points available in the next 8 still leaves us in the running for a minimum of Top 4.

I keep hearing whispers from those who know what they're whispering about that it could be Lewandowski as the new striker and not Falcao

Isn't he off to Munich?

If we beat Everton next weekend I think we are in a good position to mount a challenge. They will be bang up for it, and it would be a strong statement of intent if we can ride their storm and come away from there with the win.

We should always be looking to finish first anyway of course, but the gap from 7th to 1st is not one that is bridged in one season very often.

Some great posts in here..!

To be honest, I am on the cusp of believing – we are playing some great football and for once I am confident against anyone, especially at Anfield..! However, 1 game changes a lot... More so than I have seen at this stage in the season in a long time. If we lose a game and others around us win we could drop from 2nd to 8th – now that I would expect at the very start of the season, not 11 games in!

Personally I won’t take too much stock in games against Everton, Utd, City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs... If we can win half of them then we are in with a shout – its games against West Brom, Hull, Palace, Sunderland, Newcastle and the rest that we need to win to be contenders. We will lose again to a team in the ‘top 4’ and its how we bounce back that makes a difference to the final season placing. Any game we win against a rival will of course help us a hell of a lot, but looking at the league anyone can beat anyone.

I normally wait until Christmas to view where we will be, if we are in the top 4 then I think we have a shout – especially as our tough games will all be at home in the second half of the season. Is it our year, I dont know but I bloody hope so!

Also these last three weeks, the fallibility of everyone else has been put into sharp focus. Running down the potential winners (other than us), here's how I rate them as of now:

First let me apologise for lifting only this from a very comprehensive reply. When thinking, about the question I posed you, this was the first thing came to my mind - the fallibility of other teams. That's not to put a 'damper' on how we have preformed by the way.

Before the start of the season many of us were pointing out that Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea were (possibly) going to experience difficulties, as they went through transition and how now (transfer window) was the time to drive home any perceived advantage. Well, it's looking like (early on anyhow) that things have panned out the way we expected but did we drive home the advantage?

Can we drive any advantage home (by getting to January ahead and strengthening) before they re-group?... because they will certainly look to strengthen, if needed.

The thing with looking at it that way [performance of others] is that we have no real control over that... other than to beat them and that's where s@int (and others) have got it right. Even in their 'frail' state the worst of those 'top four' teams [last season's top four], points wise, are only four points behind us; the best, two points ahead.

Of the competition, you listed, we have only Spurs, Man City and Chelsea left to play; all away. We can't impact on Man Utd (we've already done the fuckers over) and we definitely can't impact on Arsenal or Southampton. So, other than hope that they drop points elsewhere, all we can do is win our games to guarantee we stay ahead of Southampton, Spurs, Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea or in touch with Arsenal because I'm not so sure hoping others drop points is enough.

The question is; can we do that, then strengthen to win the league? Get to January relatively intact [18 points min, in my opinion], without relying on others and yeah; why not?

Eventually you'd expect Chelsea and United to hit some form.
As others have mentioned, it is very tight at the top and the
key will be can Liverpool maintain form up to January.

Eventually you'd expect Chelsea and United to hit some form.
As others have mentioned, it is very tight at the top and the
key will be can Liverpool maintain form up to January.

City and Arsenal's form in that table fairly interesting, I wouldn't have guessed that.

The rest as expected really

Agree that we can make a top four - even more - but it depends on how the three big away games in december turns out. Acutally all december is crucial.

Where did you get the "Bubby Corresponding Fixtures to last year league table" from racer? 

Next stop? Gary Lineker on MoTD then... then Pinky?... the World. 

City and Arsenal's form in that table fairly interesting, I wouldn't have guessed that.

The rest as expected really

They majority of our uplift in form being the win over Utd.
Seems like a very small improvement, but in reality that
is all I'd expect. We're looking to maintain, and slightly improve,
the form we were carrying in the second half of the season.

Looking at the form:

Points Per Game Average.
2012. First 20 games of last season. - 1.55.
2013. Remaining 18 games of the season. - 1.833. With added Coutinho and Sturridge.
2013. First 11 games of the season. - 2.091. If we had lost to Utd it would be 1.818.

Small margins of gain is all we are looking at.
Small but significant.

We need to hit a run of form before around Christmas,
because if we do that we have some comfort.
Results against Spurs, Chelsea and City then become a bonus,
rather than vital.

Where did you get the "Bubby Corresponding Fixtures to last year league table" from racer? 

Next stop? Gary Lineker on MoTD then... then Pinky?... the World. 

Nerf. From twitter, Brain.

Interesting table.


Edit:

Just as an aside.
Historically, going back as far as 2007-2008 if you maintain a PPG above 2.0 you challenge for the title,
and subsequently qualify for the Champions League. We are currently sustaining title challenging form,
the rest would take care of itself.

On any given day we can beat anyone in the league...that leaves it up to the manager and the players to go execute and get it done. I'm tired of hearing about the quality of other teams vs. ours. We have the quality to win week in and week out, the manager and players just need to go and do it. At this point, 4th should be a given, I want the players firmly focused on challenging for the title and I want Rodgers having them believe it can be done, even if a lot of folks on here don't believe it.

On any given day we can beat anyone in the league...that leaves it up to the manager and the players to go execute and get it done. I'm tired of hearing about the quality of other teams vs. ours. We have the quality to win week in and week out, the manager and players just need to go and do it. At this point, 4th should be a given, I want the players firmly focused on challenging for the title and I want Rodgers having them believe it can be done, even if a lot of folks on here don't believe it.

A given?

Could you explain mate?

A given?

Could you explain mate?

Not much I can explain. With the players we have and the performances both we (and other teams) have shown so far I think top 4 should be a given. If we don't make CL then I think Brendan's employment here may start to become a huge variable.

Last season we won 3 of our 18 games against the top half of the table teams. If we do not improve on that record I don't think we will qualify for top 4 never mind challenge for the title. Not sure we have the evidence so far to say that we can beat any team on a given day..... YET.

Not much I can explain. With the players we have and the performances both we (and other teams) have shown so far I think top 4 should be a given. If we don't make CL then I think Brendan's employment here may start to become a huge variable.

That would be yet another bad decision if so.

Don't get me wrong I think we can get top 4 but I wouldn't say its a given

Last season we won 3 of our 18 games against the top half of the table teams. If we do not improve on that record I don't think we will qualify for top 4 never mind challenge for the title. Not sure we have the evidence so far to say that we can beat any team on a given day..... YET.

We lost to Arsenal who lost to ManUre who lost to us.

We can beat anyone in the league.

We lost to Arsenal who lost to ManUre who lost to us.

We can beat anyone in the league.

He has a point, can't argue with maths!

We lost to Arsenal who lost to ManUre who lost to us.

We can beat anyone in the league.

ha ha ha ... nice one

See where were at around January when the difficult Xmas period is over teams still competing in all competitions may drop more points and if we take advantage it may just be the springboard to launch a serious challenge.

He has a point, can't argue with maths!

Feel to finish 3rd would be a great achievement, tbh, this would be a great improvement on 7th and would give the side automatic qualification to the champion's League, which I feel would be a realistic target at this stage of the season.

We lost to Arsenal who lost to ManUre who lost to us.

We can beat anyone in the league.

See where were at around January when the difficult Xmas period is over teams still competing in all competitions may drop more points and if we take advantage it may just be the springboard to launch a serious challenge.

Last season we won 3 of our 18 games against the top half of the table teams. If we do not improve on that record I don't think we will qualify for top 4 never mind challenge for the title. Not sure we have the evidence so far to say that we can beat any team on a given day..... YET.

Just wait a little bit longer and the picture will be clearer!   

I think this year it may come down to home form, ie we don't drop any more changers a la Southampton and beat our rivals that may be the deciding factor.