The most remarkable thing about Liverpool’s opening two games of the season – perhaps the only remarkable thing about these fixtures – is how little mention there has been of Steven Gerrard’s absence from the team.
This is a player who, on too many occasions to recall, almost single handedly dragged the club out of the mire. A player who was the difference between success and failure, between hope and a motorway of mediocrity stretching out as far anyone could see.
He was the player who got the goal in 1-0 victories over stubborn, newly-promoted sides who came to Anfield, gave it a go and found there was little or nothing to be afraid of. Sides just like Bournemouth.
They were the kind of victories that led everyone to ask ‘where would Liverpool be without Steven Gerrard?’
The answer, as far as we can tell so far, is they seem to be in much the same place.
Admittedly the Gerrard who left Liverpool last summer was clearly not the player of old. He was probably even two years past when he should have called it a day at Anfield.
But imagine a Chelsea side without John Terry (something that may no longer require too much of a leap of the imagination). Remember when Giggs or Scholes or Keane or Schmeichel or Cantona left United. Think back to when Vieira left Arsenal.
There was something missing, at least visually, from those sides the first time you watched them play without one of their talismanic figures.
It felt slightly wrong seeing someone else in their position, doing their job or, worse still, doing a different job.
That’s not happening at Liverpool this season. Gerrard has barely been mentioned.
Luis Suarez on the other hand …
It’s over a year since Suarez left for Barcelona but still his presence lurks whenever a Liverpool attack hits the buffers or when forward momentum comes to halt.
It’s hard not to think of Suarez when a player seems limited by not having the imagination and the willpower to think that anything is possible, that there is a way past every possible blockade.
This isn’t to castigate the current side by any means. In fact, despite the 100% record and the perfect defensive record, it’s pretty much impossible to tell which way this side goes.
Roberto Firmino may become a world-beater, Philippe Coutinho could develop the consistency and the goalscoring knack that currently is the difference between a very good player and a great player.
Christian Benteke could do for Liverpool what Didier Drogba or Diego Costa did for Chelsea. Daniel Sturridge may overcome the physical and mental issues that have cased his long absence.
Dejan Lovren and Martin Skrtel may form a rock solid partnership and Emre Can could be the hired muscle in front of the back four that Liverpool have lacked since Javier Mascherano left in 2010.
But for now we don’t know. And these two victories so far have told us nothing, despite how many collections of five things might have been learned by various writers.
Liverpool began the 2013-14 season with three 1-0 wins in a row. They ended up failing to win the league title because they conceded 50 goals in the next 35 games.
Banned for biting Branislav Ivanovic, Suarez missed those first three victories (he returned for their sixth league game of the season at Sunderland) when Brendan Rodgers was said to have sorted out a defence over a summer that had conceded 43 goals the previous season
It turned out he hadn’t, and the chances are he hasn’t now either, despite what people on Twitter may say. Certainly their defending of set pieces, and Simon Mignolet’s continued unease when dealing with crosses, suggestions it may we as you were back there.
Two seasons ago they had Suarez to come back and instigate the most unlikely and exciting title challenge in many years
Now there are only memories of his footballing genius, despite how much people might want to move on.
There are memories too of Gerrard, but for some reason they seem even more distant.
