On Saturday against Sunderland, Liverpool found a slightly different way to win.
With no Adam Lallana to press, and with Philippe Coutinho having gone off injured, they didn't quite blow the opposition away in the manner they have so often done this season. Instead, they ground out a victory, as Divock Origi eventually drove home a crucial goal to send Jurgen Klopp's on the way to a 2-0 win. The question now is whether it suggests this season can end differently; whether they can go that one step further than in the 2013-14 campaign, when they finished second.
That campaign has already been brought up a few times this season, leading to Klopp evading a few comparisons. The reality he's going to have to accept, however, is that it's going to be brought up much more the further they go into a title challenge. That's because that season was something of a benchmark, in how a Liverpool side went so far in the modern era, but also something of a ghost -- because of how it ended.
With Brendan Rodgers's side in pole position in the Premier League and only requiring a draw against Chelsea to go into the final two games in charge, Steven Gerrard notoriously slipped to succumb to a 2-0 defeat. For all that the captain became the symbol of that collapse, though, a lot of it was a consequence of the team's core qualities. Their strengths were also their weaknesses, as the high-speed attacking led to a high line defence that was always vulnerable.
So, can the current team avoid that? What's similar? What has changed?
The start
Beyond the basic play, this is the one thing we can directly compare right now: the first 13 games of the season. And it's good news for the current team -- they're in a better position. Sure, they are second in the table -- just as the 2013-14 team were -- but that's with six more points (30 compared to 24), and with less of a gap to the top. Whereas Rodgers's side were four points behind Arsenal after 13 games of the 2013-14 campaign, Klopp's team are just a point behind Chelsea, having lost just one game compared to their predecessors' three.
The 2013-14 side actually conceded one fewer than Klopp's, at 13 compared to 14, but that comes as the 2016-17 outfit have hit a massive nine more goals with 32. Of course, the big thing with Rodgers's side was how they grew as a team and went on a sensational 11-game winning streak in the last 14 matches of that season. It remains to be seen whether Klopp's team can do that, but failing to do so may not be a bad thing.
A lot of Liverpool's title challenge in 2013-14 was down to the rhythm and confidence developed over that period, and the problem was they didn't have the resilience to take it further once that was punctured. It was like they gradually hit a groove with something unrepeatable; that it was ever so slightly freakish. So the question is whether this side's form is more sustainable, and not so dependent on such a streak. Much of that will come down to style, and who starts.
The starters
There's no getting away from the biggest factor in that 2013-14 title challenge: the form of Luis Suarez. He was responsible for 30.7 percent of Liverpool's goals, with 31 strikes of his own. As supremely as Rodgers did in building a tactical framework to maximise what they had, a lot of that season was dependent on the Uruguayan's dynamic genius. In fact, Liverpool's entire scoring threat was dependent on a relatively narrow core of players. With Daniel Sturridge also hitting 21, he and Suarez were responsible for just over 51 percent of the side's goals. A total of five players (Gerrard 13, Raheem Sterling nine, Martin Skrtel seven) offered 80.2 percent of their goals, and they only had 12 scorers as a whole.
Klopp's team already have 11 different goal scorers after just 13 games, and the goals are much more spread out. No single player has scored more than 18.5 percent of their goals (Sadio Mane on six) and there are three players who have each offered 15.6 percent of goals (Coutinho, Roberto Firmino and James Milner on five each). In other words, they have a greater range of attacking threats, with goals coming from more angles, and aren't so dependent on any one player. That is obviously relevant to the injury to Coutinho. That is a blow, but isn't debilitating in the way any absence of Suarez would have been. Much will depend on Klopp's adaptation to that, but he has far more possibilities and alternatives than Rodgers did.
The style
Whereas one of the defining images of this Liverpool side is how they suddenly pounce with their pressing to produce a remarkable piece of innovation, with 2013-14, it was the way their attacking trio -- led by Suarez's drive -- would suddenly tear at a team from deep while seeming to just eat up yards of the pitch. That is illustrated in how Rodgers's side scored nine times from counter-attacks in their first 13 games -- almost 10 percent of their goals -- while the current side have hit none. That is probably down to how Klopp's team maintain possession more, at 59 percent compared to the 54.8 percent of three years ago. That has meant they actually don't have to be as aggressive.
Because, somewhat surprisingly given Klopp's reputation for gegenpressing, Rodgers's side made more tackles per game (22.3 per game compared to 19.3) and more interceptions (12.2 against 10.2). One big caveat to all this is that the current Liverpool are in a more competitive title race. It can be seen in how all of the top three -- Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City -- have more points now than the leaders Arsenal did at the same stage in 2013-14.
It's up to Klopp's team, to keep the pace -- and stay a step ahead of what their predecessors were doing.