James Milner has admitted that there is frustration amongst the Liverpool squad at the moment following their disappointing start to the season.
Jurgen Klopp’s side has won just four of their opening 12 Premier League games and are already 15 points behind league leaders Arsenal and eight behind Newcastle United who currently occupy the final Champions League spot.
The Reds welcome Napoli to Anfield in the Champions League tomorrow and the 36-year-old has explained that he and his teammates are working hard to find consistency at the moment.
“Yeah, obviously, there is always frustration,” the No. 7 explained (via Liverpoolfc.com). “The expectations we have on ourselves, the expectations the fans have and how we’ve performed over recent years and the success we’ve had, obviously when things don’t go well it’s tough and you’re frustrated and you’re trying to put it right.
“The performances are there in certain games, which obviously isn’t ideal because it shows we’re not a million miles off but we’re not performing to the level we should be consistently enough and that’s something we definitely have to work hard to put it right.”
After going agonisingly close to completing a glorious quadruple last term, the FA Cup champions have looked fragile this time around with some suggestions that Klopp’s squad are fatigued following their efforts last season.
The veteran midfielder has explained that he attempts to shut out any outside noise at a time when the side are receiving some criticism.
“I can only answer that personally,” Milner added. “I don’t take too much notice, to be honest, whether things are good or bad because that’s football, things change very quickly. You can’t get too high when things are going well and you can’t get too low when things aren’t.
“Football is full of that and the more you keep an even keel [the better]. That’s your job, to get interest and have opinions, and everyone is entitled to their own opinions. But when things are going well they are going to be blown out of proportion; win the first six games of the season and you’re going to go unbeaten and if you have a bad run you’re going to get relegated. That’s the way of the world. For us, that doesn’t help – we have to focus on the next game, try to perform as well as we can and try to get a result.”
Liverpool are already through to the knockout stages of the Champions League so getting a result against the Italian outfit isn’t imperative, but following our shocking defeat to Leeds United on Saturday, a huge performance is needed to boost the confidence of all involved with the club.
Luciano Spalletti’s side are in frightening form, however, and they will pose a real threat tomorrow night – the Serie A leaders are looking for their fourteenth win in a row and defeated us 4-1 back in September.