Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp has tried to cool down any talk of a possible title run despite the Reds having won seven of their last eight matches, including the 6-1 humiliation of Southampton on Wednesday night in the Capital One Cup.
Despite the impressive results since the Germans arrival on Merseyside Klopp is urging the fans not to get too carried away just yet, as there is still plenty of work to do before he has the team he wants.
“I don’t think about this,” he said of a title run.
“People can talk about this but we just have to play football.
“We don’t have any ideas yet about where we can get to – it’s a fantastic football club and everyone here loves working at this club and everything is really good.
“But you need to have luck with injuries to be challenging, so we can’t get carried away and look too far forward – we are only in sixth place.
“That is all we look at and that is what football is all about. We know we can get better, and we know there is still a long way to go.”
This caution is understandable from Klopp as he remembers it took three years to build a title winning team at Dortmund.
He also knows that will his team is strong up front there are weaknesses at the back with not enough cover should he lose a central defender or full-back, but for now at least it is all about instilling confidence in his players.
“We will try to play very emotional football. All the world is talking about ball possession, but we have to have a plan for when we have the ball and when we don’t,” he said.
“They have to listen to what I say, that is very important because I believe it is better to have 11 players do the same thing wrong than everybody doing what they want.
“We have to do it one way and that is my way. Now we cannot talk about football philosophy and ball ¬possession and playing like Barcelona or whoever. No, this team needs to create its own style.”
So far at least the players seem to be listening as the performances at Chelsea, Manchester City and Southampton has showed, and now if he can get the same kind of results at Anfield who knows how far Liverpool can go this season.
