Liverpool-Swansea City Verdict: Reds End 'Perfect' Week With Imperfect Win

Liverpool’s perfect start to the 2015-16 season was over before Brendan Rodgers’ Reds really had started rolling. But momentum and confidence now are pushing Jurgen Klopp’s new Reds in the right direction.

Liverpool topped Swansea City 1-0 in the Premier League on Sunday at Anfield. The result marked Liverpool’s first back-to-back wins since Aug. 17, and Klopp celebrates his first home Premier League win after nearly two months and three games of trying.

Klopp characterized the result as a “perfect” conclusion to a “perfect” week, in which Liverpool also beat Manchester City in the Premier League and Bordeaux in the UEFA Europa League.

Not even the Reds’ uninspiring performance in the win over Swansea City can detract from the fact Klopp’s team is on a roll. Their three-game winning run (in all competitions), budding Premier League streak and rise to sixth place in the standings have simultaneously closed the door on the troubled end to Rodgers’ regime and reignited the optimism that prevailed at Anfield when the Reds started the season with a perfect six points from two games.

Liverpool won ugly in those days, too, but everyone knew the scales of the challenges only would grow in the weeks and months that followed. The win over Swansea was scrappy like those in August, but a number of factors suggest trouble won’t follow this streak.

Daniel Sturridge and Jordan Henderson returned from injury, and they hadn’t appeared together in the Reds’ first 20 games this season. Their comebacks immediately added quality and depth to Liverpool’s bench, and they’ll bring greater and more intense competition for playing time as time progresses.

Emre Can impressed at holding midfielder in place of the suspended Lucas Leiva. Add that position to center forward as areas where Klopp has more than one high-level option.

Liverpool’s strength is growing at the exact moment when the quality of its opponents diminishes. Having dispatched the slumping Swans, Liverpool visits Southampton on Wednesday in the Capital One Cup quarterfinals and FC Sion on Dec. 10 in the UEFA Europa League. Those games likely will be harder than upcoming Premier League contests against 19th-placed Newcastle (away next Sunday), 13th-placed West Brom (home on Dec. 13) and 11th-placed Watford (away on Dec. 20).

Klopp should have the numbers and quality he needs to rotate his players while still balancing the demands of the three competitions. If he does with maximum success, Liverpool will enter the Boxing Day and New Year’s period sitting in or around the top four positions and riding a nine-game winning streak.

Such a run would represent Liverpool’s longest since the spring of 2014 when it came closer to winning the domestic title than it has in over a quarter century.

Klopp has banned title talk around Anfield, and it’s still too early for us to conclude where these Reds’ ceiling lies. However, afterthought performances like Liverpool’s winning show against Swansea City serve important purposes. Liverpool can’t reach that point of which we won’t speak without these gritty and functional games. They’re an essential component of success, and their points in the standings count just as much as those classics produce.