Liverpool ended their tough run of games with a 0-0 draw against Manchester City. This game didn’t have many clear-cut chances but thankfully, Riyad Mahrez decided to send his penalty to the moon rather than the back of the net.

Surprisingly, it was Virgil van Dijk that gave the penalty away, despite us giving Dejan Lovren his first Premier League start of the season.

Our attack was non-existent and Alisson had to do a bang-up job to keep a couple of low City shots out. Nevertheless, we didn’t lose to our title rivals and are tied on the same number of points as Chelsea and City.

Liverpool head into the international break having played Chelsea (twice), City, Tottenham, Napoli and Paris Saint-Germain. And both our losses this season came in cup competitions.

This City game wasn’t something to tell your grandkids about but there were some important points to discuss.

1) The lack of creativity is killing Liverpool

Where do I begin? Our front three can’t catch a break this season. Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane already look gassed while Mohamed Salah is trying his best but to no avail.

The Egyptian had one decent chance in the game but blasted the ball over the bar in the second half. What seems to be missing is someone who can unlock defences and get the trio running. We had Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain doing that last season, but have no one doing it this time around.

Even Naby Keita was subdued, despite coming on earlier than expected. The link between the midfield and attack has gone missing at times this season, and this is the only problem we have in our current XI.

2) Klopp should make changes earlier

We spent so much money in bringing players in the summer and then Klopp isn’t willing to change things up at Anfield. Liverpool weren’t great in attack and we could see that the attack needed some freshening up.

While the German did bring on Daniel Sturridge late in the game, we had the X-Factor, Xherdan Shaqiri sitting on the bench.

The former Stoke City man has looked great for us, and it was a major surprise why he wasn’t given any minutes against the Blues.

Klopp needs to change things up a bit when it isn’t going right on the pitch and it is a little concerning why we aren’t rotating the side around and ensuring some of our top stars get more rest.

3) Lovren was incredible and lucky

Dropping Trent Alexander-Arnold to the bench and playing Dejan Lovren as the central defender would have certainly raised a few eyebrows before the game.

The Croatian is a quality defender but this was his first Premier League start of the season. The former Southampton defender hadn’t played much since the World Cup final, and facing Manchester City would have been the worst team to face, given their attacking threat.

However, Lovren was excellent and won, more or less, every single battle he faced. There was the one moment early on when he seemed to tap Sergio Aguero from behind and it looked like a penalty but barring that, Lovren made a fantastic return to the side.

4) Refreshing honesty from Van Dijk

In a time and age when players hide their mistakes and try to blame others, Virgil van Dijk was open about his foul on Leroy Sane which gave City their penalty.

The Dutch defender was a little slow to the ball and the penalty was the right call. Van Dijk spoke after the game and admitted the referee was right in giving City the spot-kick.

Van Dijk might not have been this honest had we lost the game but he still was in top form as City barely had a kick.

This possibly was his only mistake so far in the season and hopefully, the Dutch star learns from this and doesn’t go diving in all the time.

5) Liverpool still far better off than last season

Liverpool haven’t won any of their last four games and have only scored twice. That would mean pandemonium for some but let’s put things into perspective.

We are still top of the league and unbeaten. We have a couple of easier games in the Champions League, after our last-minute loss to Napoli. We don’t have to worry about the extra games from the League Cup. And, we have already played Chelsea, City and Tottenham this season.

It has been a crazy season so far, with the fixture schedule but we have shown that we are better than last season.

The performances aren’t as brilliant but the numbers don’t lie. Last season, after eight games, we had 13 points in the Premier League, this time, we have 20.

We had drawn four times and lost once in our eight games last season, this time we have six wins and a couple of draws.

The Reds had three clean sheets last time from while this season, we have five from eight games. Even in the Champions League, we are better off.

The Reds had drawn their opening fixtures last season while we have a win and a draw against tougher opposition this time.

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It isn’t all doom and gloom for the Reds as we still haven’t gotten out of second gear. The international break does come at a great time for the players to rest and hopefully, they will come back better than ever in a couple of weeks.