Jürgen Klopp said Liverpool are not perfect and in no mood to celebrate the impending arrival of the Premier League title at Anfield despite extending their lead to 22 points with victory over Southampton.
Liverpool equalled Manchester City’s record of 20 consecutive Premier League home wins with the 4-0 victory and their emphatic lead at the summit represents the biggest advantage any team has enjoyed at this stage of a season.
Klopp’s team are also unbeaten in 42 top-flight games but the manager insists there is no feeling of invincibility within his squad and only continued hard work will land the club’s first league title for 30 years.
“I promise you I don’t lie but we just don’t feel it,” the Liverpool manager said. “I am a very optimistic person but not before a football game. My main feeling before the game was concern. They had too many shots but what Ali [Alisson] is doing to make the saves look so simple I have no clue. The finishes were good but Ali is there.
“We are not perfect, not even close to being perfect, but we don’t care about being perfect. We just try and use our skills in the best possible way. The boys do that and that is why we have these kind of numbers. It just feels like the hardest work. Now the boys can go away and enjoy their break and come back recharged.”
On Liverpool’s phenomenal winning run, he said: “I have never seen it before. But it is not that I feel stronger and stronger after each win. It is just one great celebration, sometimes more, sometimes less, then relief, settle and go again.
“I have no clue how it should feel. We have a week off and then we go again. So many things can happen in football and we have to use the skills and character of the boys and the power of this club and this stadium. It is our duty to win football games.”
Despite the margin of Liverpool’s win, Southampton made life difficult for the leaders and argued for a penalty when Fabinho caught Danny Ings moments before Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain opened the scoring. Ralph Hasenhüttl, the visitors’ manager, said: “The difference was the first goal. If we score it, maybe the second half is completely different but they get a lift from scoring it and they are so strong. I don’t see the reason why [Ings] should go down. He is alone in front of the keeper. [Fabinho] hits him twice. It will not happen that Liverpool scores and the referee goes back and gives us a penalty.”
Klopp cited a half-time positional change of Fabinho as key to his team’s improvement, rather than Southampton’s rejected penalty appeal. “Wow, what a team Southampton is,” he said. “I am so long in football and I never saw a turnaround like that. I saw them playing against Chelsea a few months ago and I was really worried for them. That kind of turnaround is exceptional.
“We had the problems in the first half because we lost the balls in the wrong moments. We had to change two or three things, most important the role of Fabinho, and then we started rolling. Southampton wanted a penalty, I didn’t see it back but Oxlade scored a sensational goal. The strange thing is that Southampton could have won it as well. That shows how difficult it was.”
