On Monday night, Liverpool romped to victory in West Yorkshire with an emphatic 6-1 win against Leeds United. After a pedestrian opening half-hour, the Reds found their confidence and a touch of footballing Scouse House, with the return of something that looked a bit like the real Liverpool. This was further bolstered by a cameo appearance from long-injured Luis Diaz. It would have been very Liverpool 2022/23 of them to lose to a team that had just shipped five goals at home to a Roy Hodgson tactical plan, but they went one better and put six past Leeds.
The comeback against Arsenal has caused reverberations, but Liverpool are still in eighth place in mid-April. The campaign has been littered with potential springboards that have gone unutilised. Despite the good night for the soul, there are still reasons to be sceptical. Until Cody Gakpo opened the scoring in the 35th minute, there was a defined ‘can’t-be-arsed’ vibe permeating Liverpool’s players. Third gear seemed an outlandish ambition at that stage, let alone the higher gears they eventually hit as the game progressed.
Events such as the 9-0 against Bournemouth, the 7-1 against Rangers, the 7-0 against Erik ten Hag’s United and now this 6-1 drubbing of Leeds have all offered mirages of the Liverpool they can still be. However, their disjointed attempts at riding the waves these results should have created have been destructive. After Bournemouth, they won just one of their next five Premier League fixtures, and after putting Man United so impressively to the sword, they took just two of the next 12 points on offer in the league.
The next eight fixtures will be crucial in determining whether Liverpool can break these destructive patterns or not. Once the deadlock had been broken, they were excellent against Leeds. Trent Alexander-Arnold operated as a deep-lying midfield conductor with an added roaming remit when his team were in possession and he had two assists and much influence in central areas. Curtis Jones also put in one of his best performances in a Liverpool shirt.
These valuable days are all about some advanced evolution towards the fresh start of the 2023/24 Premier League campaign, with a willingness to accept any belated end-of-season bonus this time around should others hit the self-destruct button. Klopp can give Jones a run of games, experiment with Alexander-Arnold’s role, and test any other theories he still has on the drawing board – all within a competitive run of games rather than in the docile environment of pre-season. Nottingham Forest come to Anfield on Saturday, another potential step on the road to rehabilitation.