Two in the middle, one in the win column

"We know what we are when they're both there," Robert Pladevall said after the latest win. "The numbers don't let you hide from it."

They do not. Liverpool have played 19 games with Edgardo Pérez and Uebert paired in central midfield this season: 11 wins, 3 draws, 5 defeats. They have scored 1.2 goals a game and conceded 0.6. They have played 4 games without one of the pair: 4 defeats, 0 goals scored, 2.5 conceded a game. The partnership is not just a preference; it is the difference between a side that averages 1.9 points a game and one that averages none.

The pattern has held since Uebert arrived from Palmeiras in July 2062 for £17.9m. Pérez, the senior partner at 30, has been at Anfield since 2052, when he cost £7.2m from Club Atlético Tigre. Together they have started every league match they were both available for, and the results have followed. The four games without one of them were not against exceptional opposition—two were against bottom-half sides—but the drop-off was total.

Pérez is the metronome, Uebert the disruptor. The Argentine has 19 goals in 360 Liverpool games; the Brazilian, 6 in 72. Neither is prolific, but the pairing works because they cover for each other's absences in the press and in possession. When one is missing, the other looks lost; the team's shape frays and the goals dry up.

Saturday's win over Brighton was the 19th together. It was not vintage—a single goal, a late scare—but it followed the script. Liverpool controlled the middle, conceded little and took their chance. The result lifted them to fourth, three points off the top, with a visit to Chelsea on 22 December next on the league calendar. That match will test the pattern: Chelsea are the only side to beat Liverpool with both Pérez and Uebert on the pitch this season.

The concern is the depth behind them. Liverpool's squad is thin, and Pladevall has admitted the club's finances are strained. The pair have stayed fit so far, but a suspension or a muscle injury to either would expose the gap. The four games without one of them suggest the gap is a chasm.

"We have to find a way to win without them," Pladevall said. "We can't rely on two players for every point."

But the numbers say they already do. The season so far has been built on a simple equation: when Pérez and Uebert start together, Liverpool are a top-four side. When one is missing, they are bottom of the table. The challenge now is to change that equation before it costs them more than points.