Tomorrow, two years to the day since his union with Roy Evans came to a predictable end, Coventry City are the visitors to an Anfield that, for the first time in a forgettable decade, is beginning to assume a fortress-like quality. Liverpool have won six of their last seven matches in all competitions, scoring 17 goals in the process, and have dropped only two points at home all season. The giant has begun to stir.

The paragraph above is how one London broadsheet began an article on the state of Liverpool under Gerard Houllier. It is 35 days old.

Such a positive flourish will not make its way into many newspapers this morning, or tomorrow morning, when the subject of Liverpool's match at Old Trafford is addressed.

The statistics that will be used are Liverpool's Premiership away record - five defeats already, five points from a possible 24 - and that another tomorrow lunchtime will leave them 16 points behind Manchester United with less than half a season played. Plus, the unbeaten home record is gone - to Ipswich Town.

To Liverpool's critical devotees, to the optimists who always think a red renaissance is around the next corner, the 35 days will be seen as the lost month. Another waste of valuable time.

Forget the victories over Stoke City, or Olympiakos, or Fulham, what will be remembered are the lost lead at Tottenham, going down at St James' Park and last Sunday's defeat by Ipswich. Tick-tock, tick-tock, soon it will be 11 years since Liverpool's last league title.

For Houllier, it will be different. To some, time is slipping away at Anfield. To Houllier, it is unfolding. The Frenchman will see the last month as another period of development - hindered or otherwise - of his Liverpool.

Houllier knows the quick-fire reactionaries desperate for success have an argument, and he appreciates it, it's just that he has always had his own timetable. Only time will tell if he is right, but Houllier is sticking to it.

It cannot be easy. Urging patience at a club that is somehow still regarded as a national institution, as if under public ownership in England, is like asking for some time to fix the railways. What about today's travel? What time will we get to the completely rejuvenated Liverpool?

The scrutiny is intense, not least because as Houllier points out: "There is no club in England with so many former players involved with the press, or TV, or the radio.

"I could name more than 10 pundits who used to play for Liverpool and they are telling me what to do and what not to do. It is not an ordinary job. It is not like being manager of Aston Villa." Wednesday night's programme had a dig at Mark Lawrenson.

The fact that people like Lawrenson, Alan Hansen and the occasionally vitriolic Tommy Smith in the Liverpool Echo were hugely successful is part of Houllier's problem. Another, is that short-termism, in football and everywhere else, is rife.

Fans want results yesterday and 35 days ago Liverpool's thought they had them. So what if Michael Owen was injured again, if Robbie Fowler continued to be an impression of his former self? Emile Heskey was proving his and Houllier's critics wrong. So was Nick Barmby. Danny Murphy was coming on.

All right, so the defence is less secure than last season when it was the tightest in the Premiership and Liverpool must learn how to keep a lead, but there is a squad emerging, a squad who can challenge. As the man said, Anfield was assuming a "fortress-like quality". Remember, this was on November 11th.

If Houllier was thinking this way, he hid it well. Prior to that Coventry match he said of his two-year sole tenure: "When you reach the two-year stage, you start walking.

"And that's what we're doing. When you finish fourth, the next target is to finish in the top three." There was no mention of titles, not even the aspiration.

Then Houllier repeated a favourite mantra. "I've always said it would take four years to challenge Manchester United. There's a lot of progress made, but we need to take into account that it took them four years (under Alex Ferguson) to win a trophy, seven to win a title and 10 to become a fortress."

Houllier cannot be accused of not judging Liverpool by the highest standards and he is right in his time-frame analysis of Ferguson's Manchester. It's just that what Houllier does not mention is the u £60 million he has spent over the past 24 months.

Such an outlay, by its existence, demands evidence of significant improvement - the kind Leeds United have experienced under David O'Leary. O'Leary's spending is comparable.

Watching Liverpool, drained of imagination and leaking confidence, struggle against Fulham at Anfield on Wednesday, the red evidence was not obvious.

Vladimir Smicer makes sense playing international football for the Czech Republic, but does he playing domestic football in England? And Markus Babbel, was it not widely known he was past his best? Igor Biscan, another midfielder in an already crowded area.

Loss of form and injuries cannot be attributed to a manager's judgment, so Fowler and Owen's deterioration is not purely Houllier's responsibility. Nor is Patrick Berger's injury. Berger has spoken up for Houllier, perhaps as he senses a mini-backlash beginning.

"This is my fifth year here and we have definitely improved in that time," said Berger. "Since the new manager came, it is a different Liverpool to how it was in my first two years.

"The methods are more professional. The gym equipment we use, the training, our preparation before matches, our tactics - everything is more modern than when I first arrived."

Maybe so, but the dissenters' focus is not on Liverpool's gym. It is on the fact that Liverpool have been unable to win away from home. Adding to their aggravation are those times this season when Liverpool have been in front away from Anfield and have not held onto that advantage.

It happened at Southampton and at Tottenham a month ago. Middlesbrough, bottom of the league, have conceded just four more than Hyypia & co.

Victory at Tottenham and against Ipswich - something a title bid demands -

would have left Liverpool one point behind Arsenal, who visit Anfield next Saturday, and left them on schedule to collect the Champions' League place they threw away at Bradford City on the last day of last season.

But none of those matches were won. Maybe Houllier is correct, maybe after two years his Liverpool are just learning to walk. Four years could be sensible.

As he said: "Ronnie Moran reminded me that when Bill Shankly came here it took him more than two years to get out of the second division."

For Houllier, as for Shankly, time is the central issue. But if 35 days can witness such change, four years of it should produce spectacular results.