It’s funny what a breath of fresh air can do. Humans are such a fickle animal that just a change in weather can change the entire mood. A glimpse of the sun is enough to create optimism and good times.

For Liverpool this season, Jurgen Klopp is the glimpse of the sun, the breath of fresh air, the winds of change. Rarely does a new manager come into a club with so much vaunted fanfare and so many opinion pieces. Everyone has their opinion on whether his pressing will work in the league and everyone has their doubts about whether his team can do it for a whole season.

But beneath all of the talk, there’s a real sense of excitement and optimism at Liverpool. The sense is that the club is coming out of their year of inertia and stasis that has enveloped the club for the last year or so.

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Brendan Rodgers’ team, towards the end of his tenure, just didn’t play with the pizzazz that Liverpool fans expect their teams to have.

There was a sense of inevitability about his sacking, but the club should be given credit for how quickly they moved to sack Rodgers and bring in Klopp over an international break.

That act, and the speed with which it was done, completely changed the mood.

But even though the inertia around the club off the field seems to be disappearing, it’s a different story on it.

Klopp’s team look more energetic, they play with a higher intensity and they do look better than they’ve been so far this season. So clearly there’s no cause to say that Klopp’s done a bad job. The manager needs time to change things, after all he’s only had three games in which to put his ideas across to the players never mind having a few transfer windows to change personnel and mould the team into the form he wants.

So for the moment, Klopp shouldn’t be judged on the results, but rather on how the team plays. And they’ve started to play better off the ball. On the ball, however, it’s a different story. Liverpool are still struggling to create chances and their link-up play has looked good in fits and starts, but not enough to really shine.

That’s why Liverpool are still struggling. The Klopp revolution will come in time, but it won’t change overnight. Liverpool are still struggling with their build-up, and eight draws in their last nine games tells you all that you need to know. Their only win came over Aston Villa, who are now managerless and bottom of the table, and progression in the Capital One Cup came from a penalty-shoot out, after they’d drawn the game over 180 minutes.

So clearly Klopp has a lot to fix. Usually, coming into a club, you do try to instil a work ethic, you do try to shore up the defence and you do try to get the team to foster the mentality you want them to have for the rest of your tenure.

That’s what Klopp is doing now, and long-term – which is the most important thing, seeing as Klopp should be given time to bring Liverpool into the Champions League and beyond – it should pay dividends.

But short-term the worry is that Liverpool’s defence hasn’t been that bad. They’ve had some awful moments, and they’ve conceded a few shockers this season. Notably, Dejan Lovren has been abysmal. But if you look at their goals conceded tally, they’ve only conceded three goals more than City, United and Arsenal who have the best records in the league.

Comparing Liverpool to City, Liverpool have conceded three goals more, yet their goal difference is an incredible 18 points lower.

There are a lot of issues at Liverpool presently, and Klopp has to take the long-term view to fixing them. But in the short term, Liverpool have had seven 1-1 draws and a 0-0 draw in their last nine games. Their goal difference, when compared to City at least, isn’t so poor because their defence is leaky, it’s poor because they haven’t been able to create the chances needed to win games.

One of the criticisms of Rodgers was that he got the team attacking well but could never sort out the defence, playing sometimes with wing-backs, sometimes with three centre backs, even playing Emre Can in the back line. Yet his short-term legacy at the club is his failure to get the team attacking in a coherent manner.

And although after three games, we can’t criticise Klopp for this, and although Liverpool’s last nine games could be mitigated by the fact that Henderson, Benteke, Ings and Sturridge have all been out injured, it looks like Klopp will have to address the attacking balance and the creative abilities of his side before he addresses the defence.

It’s too early to criticise Klopp, and given the long-term view he’s probably taking the right approach. But for this season, Liverpool might find themselves cut adrift of the Champions League places simply because they’ve drawn too many games, rather than lost too many. And if they want to turn those draws into wins, Klopp needs to make Liverpool prove they can score goals.

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