Liverpool have just gone a year unbeaten and become the only Premier League side to survive the festive period without dropping a point, yet Jordan Henderson thinks they can still improve and his manager agrees with him.
“Overall, our intensity was really good,” the Liverpool captain said after a comfortable 2-0 victory over Sheffield United. “We coped well but we will have to improve on that for the derby on Sunday.”
Jürgen Klopp conceded there was “space for improvement” and suggested he might be making changes for the FA Cup game to give some players a rest, without being willing to give away any secrets. “We have some tired players and a lot of injuries, and we’ve just had a tough game,” the Liverpool manager said. “I will do what I think is best but I will not be telling Carlo Ancelotti the line-up in advance.”
Klopp, who confirmed that Naby Keïta will not face Everton after injuring his groin in the warm-up, is also not getting carried away at the league run.
“That is exceptional but we did not think about one year [undefeated]. We thought about winning this game, that was the target,” Klopp said.
“The boys were 100 per cent focused; that was the important stuff. In all positions it was exceptional. Our new year starts at the middle of May – so we have season resolutions, not year resolutions.”
The Sheffield United manager, Chris Wilder, had no such qualms about his upcoming Cup game against AFC Fylde. “I will be making 11 changes,” he said. “I wasn’t going to and I apologise for changing my mind but we’ve just had two back-to-back defeats and looking at the lads tonight it occurred to me that the Manchester City game may have taken more out of us than I thought. I was a little bit drained after that performance, to be honest. We never laid a glove on Liverpool, we were well beaten technically and tactically and, but for our goalkeeper, we might have lost by four or five.
“Every time we tried to press them they played around us with the quality they have got. You can see why they are world champions and I’m sure they will soon be Premier League champions too. What impressed me most was watching them do the basics better than us, the headers and tackles and blocks. Even at the end they were still fighting for everything. The only comfort I can take is that it has taken 21 games for that to happen to us but we are still professional and it hurts.”
Klopp admitted his side had gone off the boil a little in the closing stages when some of the passing became sloppy but after a scare at Bramall Lane earlier in the season he had been determined to set up his side in the right way.
“It is not important to be spectacular when you play such an opponent; the main thing is to make sure your passing is good and your positional discipline is good,” he said.
“Ours was and, while I do think we could still do some things better, I was pleased to see us doing a few things better than we did in the last game.” – Guardian
