FROM silence to a roar. Brendan Rodgers may be concerned Liverpool are too quiet, but at Anfield they are starting to make all the right noises.
And not for the first time, it is Luis Suarez and Steven Gerrard leading the chorus.
Accused of being too timid the previous weekend, Rodgers’s men vented their frustrations in emphatic fashion on Saturday as a third successive comfortable home win helped soothe the pain of Old Trafford.
Having netted successive hat-tricks against Norwich City last year, Suarez had to settle for just the one goal as Liverpool romped to their biggest home win since April 2011.
But another impressive performance underlined that, even when employed in a deeper role alongside new strike partner Daniel Sturridge, the Uruguayan remains his team’s most potent attacking threat.
Suarez now has 20 goals for the season in all competitions – 16 in the Premier League – already three more than the previous campaign.
And while there were mitigating circumstances for a loss of form and confidence during the latter half of last season, the influence of Rodgers on the forward cannot be understated.
Andy Carroll’s summer departure may have increased the burden on Suarez’s shoulders, but the freedom with which it has allowed the Uruguayan to roam has no doubt contributed to his goal-laden displays.
The suggestion already is the arrival of Sturridge, whose clever dummy of a Lucas Leiva pass allowed Suarez to scamper clear to score, will dovetail far more effectively.
A modest Rodgers, though, believes the praise lies solely with the player himself.
“The goals Luis has scored is down to him – he's a big talent,” says the Liverpool manager. “He's a European-style player, so our model suits him, and a team that flows like ours suits him.
“If he's playing from a second striker position, if he's playing off a second ball, off an angle or straight down the middle, then you are playing off pieces and that can be difficult.
“I don't know if he'd score as many goals if he was playing off someone like Andy Carroll. It's hypothetical. I wouldn't know that and I didn't see the combination last year, how it worked and how it flowed.
“But obviously this is a model we are trying to develop and create which is about fluidity and mobility, and when you have mobile players with intelligent movement it shifts defenders and creates the sort of space that Luis thrives in.
“He's a player who is great on the move, but in order to be on the move you need the team and the ball to be moving. Once you do that you open up more spaces, and Luis has flourished with that, his game flourishes on that movement.”
Suarez, though, had to cede the main accolades on Saturday as skipper Gerrard led by a trademark thrilling example.
