Liverpool are top of the Premier League by six points at the halfway mark, but Jurgen Klopp says he was not 100 per cent satisfied with the performance against Newcastle United at Anfield on Boxing Day.
Dejan Lovren, Mo Salah, Xherdan Shaqiri and Fabinho all scored for the Reds in what was a comfortable 4-0 victory, but perfectionist Klopp wants to see defensive improvement from the team as a unit.
Klopp highlighted the first quarter of an hour as being too open for his liking, although Newcastle never threatened in that period.
Via LiverpoolFC.com, the boss said: “I liked the start offensively, but I didn’t like the start defensively – the protection was not as it should have been.
“We were not as compact as we should have been. They had the first corner, half-counters and stuff like that, so it looked like kind of an open game.
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“When we had the ball, after the first 15 minutes, we were good – one-twos, good finishes. We lost the formation a little bit, we were too wide offensively.”
It’s likely that he just wants to keep the players on their toes and avoid complacency, which is absolutely the correct approach and is completely understandable.
There are still 19 cup finals to play, with the league title at the forefront of the agenda from now until May. Keep playing like this, and there is more than a chance that this could be a season to remember.