JANUARY 2022 could be a big month for the future of Liverpool FC. In the short term, in terms of challenging for honours this season, it was already highlighted by fans as an uncertain, worrying time.

But for the benefit of long-term progress, it has seen the introduction of several useful youth players who will be hoping to emulate the progress of Curtis Jones and Trent Alexander Arnold, and the emergence of Diogo Jota as a genuine star player.

The squad also look set to be bolstered further, with 25-year-old Colombian winger Luis Diaz arriving from Porto before the transfer window closes.

These things, new signings and promotion of youth, all contribute to Liverpool maintaining their identity while also looking to continue their success.

There were reasonable predictions that Liverpool would struggle without Naby Keita, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah while they were with their national teams at Afcon this month, especially without the latter pair, who are the world-class players in Jurgen Klopp’s forward line.

At the same time, Premier League rivals Manchester City have looked unstoppable, cruising along at the top of the table with their relatively small but extremely strong squad, while other clubs have fallen away.

Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea have the squad depth, but apparently not yet the coherence nor the near perfection needed to challenge City for the league title.

They are now 10 points behind Pep Guardiola’s side having played a game more, leaving Liverpool as the only ones with a chance of catching the champions.

Liverpool’s struggles were supposed to come not through any lack of quality coaching, coherence or identity, but a lack of squad depth. They have the numbers but not the quality.

So far the club’s work on the training ground, the product of years of work and evolution under Klopp, has helped them somehow stay in touch with a City side who have looked impossible to keep up with. They have also reached the final of the EFL Cup.

This period has led to chances for young players. Several have made the step up from the academy to the first team in recent months and names such as Kaide Gordon, Tyler Morton, Neco Williams and Conor Bradley have regularly been seen in first-team line-ups or match-day squads.

Jones has also stepped up, and the 20-year-old Scouser’s performances have been such that he is now seen as a key part of the first team rather than being included in any lists of promising youngsters.

Along with the bit-parts played by those other youth players, Jones’s contributions have been important in the absence of Salah, Mane and Keita.

Meanwhile, another Scouser, the 23-year-old Alexander-Arnold, is becoming widely recognised as one of the best players in the world, thanks to unprecedented creativity from the right-back position.

The emergence of such players is important and as vital to the identity and growth of the club as a new signing such as Diaz.

At the top level of football, clubs can often lose their connection with the region in which they reside and with the fans who follow the team.

There is a risk, especially in the English Premier League which is often seen as the pinnacle of the global game, that clubs become franchises and the star-studded line-ups lose their connection with supporters and communities.

Rich owners can begin to treat clubs as merely investments or hobbies, and there is always a danger that this approach can turn teams into nothing more than business ventures. Merely part of an owner or investor’s wider portfolio.

At the top level of the game, most clubs are probably too far gone to try to retain links to their communities and fans through supporter ownership.

But we saw during last year’s Super League shambles that supporters are still able to use their power and numbers to hold clubs to account.

Off the pitch, fans should continue to do so and push for more accountability from their owners and more involvement in decisions that affect a club’s culture and ethos.

But how can clubs retain links to their culture and communities on the pitch? Liverpool might be a good example of this in action.

They are a combination of local and home-grown youth players, world-class (or potentially world-class) players plucked from around the globe, and savvy domestic signings.

There are differing personalities within the squad, but all add something that contributes to the club’s culture and drive for success on the pitch.

In terms of Liverpool’s owners, Fenway Sports Group have made their fair share of mistakes and blunders, not least their own part in the Super League saga, and other gaffes that could have been avoided with prior fan consultation.

But the day-to-day running of the club appears sensible and scrupulous, especially when compared to many other top sides around Europe.

Surely this combination of academy products and astute use of the global transfer market is the optimal way for a top club to be run.

Fans can relate to the players, wherever they are from, as Liverpool’s extensive scouting aims to make sure new arrivals embrace the club’s culture and their supporters.

It finds a balance between success and identity and means players such as Diaz and Jones, and maybe even Gordon, are able to play an important part in shaping the club’s success.