Gerrard on shaky ground in the middle

Liverpool’s performance against Manchester City was reminiscent of some of their better showings under Kenny Dalglish.

The difference is that they scored twice. Last season they failed to score more than once in 14 out of 19 home matches in the league, and drew six at home 1-1. 2-2 is probably some kind of improvement.

Rodgers made the right choice in selecting Raheem Sterling over Stewart Downing, and Joe Allen is plainly an improvement on Charlie Adam or Jay Spearing. Fabio Borini is thus far not much more effective than Andy Carroll but lacks Carroll’s tragic air of haplessness and is overall a less demoralising presence.