Liverpool go into the international break with four wins from their last five games, three consecutive Premier League clean sheets and, perhaps most importantly, the beginnings of a pattern.
That matters to me more than simply looking at the results.
Because results can come and go.
Patterns are different.
When Andoni Iraola arrived at Liverpool, so much of the conversation naturally centred around what his team might become going forward.
Bradley Barcola and Victor Muñoz had arrived. Alexander Isak was fit again. Florian Wirtz had been brought in for enormous money.
And Iraola had built his reputation on aggressive, attractive and front-foot football.
Five Premier League games into the season, though, the most striking development has actually been happening at the other end of the pitch.
Liverpool conceded twice against Newcastle and twice against Nottingham Forest in their opening two league matches.
Since then, Ipswich, Fulham and Bournemouth have all failed to score.
Liverpool’s 1-0 victory at Bournemouth was particularly significant.
This is a difficult place to go, and Iraola’s team had to withstand pressure before eventually finding a way to win. Bournemouth had plenty of territory and delivered a huge number of crosses, but Liverpool’s defence consistently dealt with the danger.
It was also Liverpool’s third consecutive Premier League clean sheet — their longest such run since September 2024.
And that feels important because this was a type of Liverpool performance we rarely saw last season.
The Defensive Numbers Are Starting to Tell a Story
I always think statistics become most interesting when they identify a trend rather than simply describe a result.
Expected goals is a good example.
xG is not perfect. A player can run clean through, fail to get a shot away and register no xG at all. An air shot produces the same problem.
It should never be treated as an infallible measurement of what happened.
But it can be extremely useful for identifying patterns.
Liverpool allowed around 0.7 xG against both Ipswich and Fulham, before restricting Bournemouth to around 0.8 xG depending on the data provider. Three matches is obviously a small sample, but the consistency is encouraging.
More importantly, watching those games has produced the same feeling.
Liverpool are becoming much harder to break down.
How many genuinely dangerous Bournemouth moments were there?
Alisson made one particularly good save from Evanilson in the first half, but I never felt Liverpool were constantly on the verge of conceding.
Fulham barely threatened unless Liverpool presented them with an opportunity.
Ipswich struggled to create anything substantial.
That is what interests me.
Liverpool aren’t simply keeping clean sheets because the opposition are missing chances.
There appears to be a growing ability to control where the danger comes from.
Bournemouth got into Liverpool territory and put cross after cross into the penalty area.
Yet Liverpool’s defenders kept winning the important battles.
Territory only matters if you can turn it into danger.
Jacquet, Van Dijk and Araujo Are Giving Liverpool a Foundation
Jeremy Jacquet is becoming one of the most encouraging developments of Iraola’s early Liverpool reign.
The young centre-back was voted Liverpool’s Player of the Match by supporters at Bournemouth after another impressive performance.
And alongside Virgil van Dijk, he is beginning to look extremely comfortable.
Then you add Ronald Araujo.
The Uruguayan’s presence at right-back gives Liverpool something slightly different.
He is enormous, aggressive and physically capable of dealing with the sort of situations that can cause problems for a full-back.
At Bournemouth, Van Dijk made 12 clearances alone, while Jacquet contributed tackles, interceptions, a block and clearances as Liverpool repeatedly dealt with the hosts’ attacks.
This is beginning to look like a proper defensive foundation.
And Alisson deserves to be right in the middle of this conversation.
His save from Evanilson was one of those moments that can completely change a match, and the goalkeeper himself admitted after the game that sometimes you have very little to do before suddenly needing to produce one big save.
Alisson, Van Dijk, Jacquet and Araujo.
That is an awful lot of defensive quality.
Iraola may have arrived at Liverpool with attacking football attached to his name, but he is quickly discovering that building a team capable of defending properly is just as important.
Cody Gakpo Is Giving Iraola Exactly What He Needs
The attacking football isn’t completely clicking yet.
But Cody Gakpo deserves enormous credit for the way he has responded.
At Bournemouth, Gakpo created three chances and won nine of his 16 duels.
That final statistic really stood out to me.
Because it shows the physical side of his game.
Gakpo has never been a player who simply wants the ball at his feet and waits for something to happen.
He is working.
He is competing.
And he is producing.
His involvement in the winning goal at Bournemouth summed it up perfectly.
There appeared to be very little available down the right, but Gakpo took on his opponent, drove forward and delivered the ball into the penalty area.
Wirtz challenged for it.
The ball fell loose.
And Isak finished.
Gakpo doesn’t get the goal or the assist, but without his run and delivery, Liverpool probably don’t score.
There is another interesting pattern here.
Gakpo has provided the assist for all four of Isak’s Premier League goals this season.
That is quite some partnership considering Liverpool’s attack is supposedly still trying to find its rhythm.
And for all the criticism Gakpo received last season, he has responded in exactly the right way.
Right now, if Liverpool had to play a Champions League final tomorrow, Gakpo would be in my strongest XI.
That tells you how well he has responded.
Isak Is Getting the Chances Liverpool Need Him to Get
Then there is Alexander Isak.
Four Premier League goals already.
That is more than he managed throughout the entirety of last season’s Premier League campaign, when he scored three times in 14 appearances.
And the underlying numbers help explain why.
Isak has taken 15 shots and accumulated 3.54 xG in just 415 Premier League minutes this season.
The important part isn’t simply that he is scoring.
It is that Liverpool are getting him into dangerous positions.
The Bournemouth goal was exactly the sort of opportunity I want to see more often.
Gakpo creates the situation.
Wirtz is involved.
The ball drops inside the penalty area.
Isak is there.
Finish.
Sometimes analysing a striker can become unnecessarily complicated.
If your centre-forward is repeatedly finding himself inside the penalty area and getting shots away, you’re already doing something right.
Isak is capable of much more than simply finishing chances.
We saw at Newcastle that he can bully defenders, carry the ball, link play and contribute to the pressing game.
But right now?
Get him into the box.
Let the goals do the talking.
The Next Four Games Will Tell Us a Lot
This is where things get particularly interesting.
Liverpool’s next Premier League run will provide a much stronger examination of everything Iraola has been building.
Manchester City are next at Anfield, followed by a demanding sequence of fixtures.
And City and Brighton are currently among the division’s highest-scoring teams.
So Liverpool are about to discover whether these defensive improvements are genuinely becoming a repeatable feature of the team.
That is the test.
Can Jacquet and Van Dijk continue to dominate?
Can Araujo provide that physical security from right-back?
Can Alisson continue producing the big saves when Liverpool need them?
Can the midfield protect the defence?
And, at the other end, can Gakpo, Wirtz, Barcola and Isak finally start producing the attacking football we expected when Iraola arrived?
Because that is the exciting part.
Liverpool don’t need to be perfect yet.
They just need to keep developing.
Four wins from five is encouraging.
Three consecutive clean sheets is encouraging.
Isak scoring four times in five league appearances is encouraging.
Gakpo creating chances and repeatedly setting up Isak is encouraging.
But the biggest encouragement for me is that Liverpool are beginning to look like a team with an identity.
Not necessarily the finished Iraola team.
Not yet.
But the foundations are becoming visible.
There is a defensive wall developing around Alisson, Araujo, Jacquet and Van Dijk.
Gakpo looks revitalised, productive and willing to do the physical work Iraola demands.
Isak is getting more opportunities in the areas where elite strikers make their money.
And the attack still has another level to find.
That is why I’m going into this international break feeling more optimistic than I was a few weeks ago.
Liverpool aren’t playing their best football yet.
But they are starting to become difficult to beat.
And if Iraola can combine that defensive solidity with the attacking football we know he wants to produce, Liverpool could eventually become a very different proposition.
For now, keep the xG conceded low.
Keep winning those defensive battles.
Keep getting the ball to Alexander Isak inside the box.
The results are good.
The pattern developing underneath them could be even more important.
Jamie (The Kopite View)
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