Liverpool FC: Fortunate win could be launchpad to another stirring season at Anfield

Liverpool have got the personnel to deliver another strong season

Liverpool have endured a stuttering season so far but could a scrappy and, yes, lucky win kickstart their campaign? Andy Brassel thinks that could be the case... 

It hardly seemed to be something epochal. When Steven Caulker stumbled into Raheem Sterling's cross to give Liverpool an improbable victory at Queen's Park Rangers on Sunday, it appeared that Liverpool were just one thing - lucky. No amount of looking would suggest this as a portent to a new night of Anfield European glory against Real Madrid, or as the catalyst for another super season.

Yet maybe, just maybe, this most fortunate of wins could be a turning point for Liverpool. Sure, it didn't suggest that their best rhythm, style or swagger was back. It did, however, show a determination to find a way, any way, to claw their way to some much-needed points as they strive to clear their throats in what has not been a recital of a season to date.

They've been here before, after all. Sunday's farrago was eerily close (to these eyes, at least) of one of the key victories from last season, the 3-2 win prised from Fulham's Craven Cottage on their last visit to west London, some eight months ago. Brendan Rodgers' side were staring down the prospect of a defeat to a side far inferior to them for the majority of that evening, before snatching the points in extremis with Steven Gerrard's last-gasp penalty. 

That may not be a match that we consider representative of Liverpool's excellent campaign last time out, but it was an important moment. On that evening, the Reds were poor, and their defending was even worse than it was last weekend, in a chain of events begun by Kolo Tour's extraordinary own goal. 

It ultimately meant so much, as a sign of being able to believe in the near impossible, of being able to hope against hope. That victory at Fulham was the second in a run of 11 straight in the Premier League that took Rodgers' side to the very brink of the title. It demonstrated that they had the stickability to go with the style of four days before, when they had pulled Arsenal to pieces at Anfield.

Today, it seems unlikely that Liverpool can pull that sort of roll from the hat just yet. This is a clearly a team in the process of being restored - four of the starters at QPR weren't at the club last season and a fifth, Jos Enrique, barely played via injury - but that should tell us that there is plenty of scope for them to improve.  

Laying one of those newcomers, Mario Balotelli, to score at 2.35/4 turned out to be one of the smarter bets of the weekend and when Rodgers has a fully-fit and firing squad to pick from, there may well be an argument that the Italian simply isn't in his best XI.

Forget the concerns about temperament - it's a question of style. If we put aside the open goal miss - which, really, could happen to anyone - the Reds' best moments at Loftus Road were reminiscent of their visceral pace of last season, even if they were few and far between on this occasion. Sterling and Philippe Coutinho provided the zest which personifies the best of this Liverpool, a profile which Balotelli, for all his undoubted qualities, simply doesn't fit.

The price of 48.047/1 for Liverpool to become champions still fails to tempt, but 2.1211/10 to finish top four looks good, and the faults of Arsenal and Manchester United even make the 3.45n/a to finish top three - and secure automatic Champions League group stage entry - also appeals.

Just remember when it comes to springtime that it all started on that Sunday afternoon at Loftus Road.

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