Liverpool can thank two domestic rivals for helping to give them early Champions League edge

Football fans across Europe may still be trying to get their heads around the new Champions League format for this season, but the simple takeaway for Liverpool supporters is this – we’re in a very healthy position at the quarterway mark in the league phase.

Keeping track of a 36-team table is a darn sight more complicated than calculating the mental arithmetic around the time-honoured structure of four-club groups, but for the Reds, the basic brief is to simply take care of their own business and let the others fall in around them.