Liverpool continue to send records tumbling in 2019-20, and are now 22 points clear in the Premier League, but Jurgen Klopp says his side are “not perfect, not even close to being perfect”.
The Reds have been almost faultless in the English top-flight this season.
A 4-0 victory over Southampton has carried them further in front of the title-chasing pack, with a 24th victory claimed from 25 outings.
No team has ever been this dominant, but Klopp says his squad continue to take things one game at a time and are paying little attention to tables and the history books.
“We don’t look at that number, that’s true,” he said after seeing a goal apiece from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jordan Henderson and a brace from Mohamed Salah see Liverpool past Southampton.
“The game we lost in the [unbeaten] period was at Manchester City and we could say we lost it because of 11mm or whatever. It was a really tight game, so imagine if we would have drawn that day and then I don’t know what the number would be then of how many games we didn’t lose or whatever.
“Look, I promise you I don’t lie: we don’t feel it. We just don’t feel it. Today before the game, my main feeling is that I am concerned. I am a very optimistic person but not before a football game because I have known for long enough anything can happen; the ball rolls in different directions and stuff like this.
“Today, for example, Southampton had absolutely too many shots and finishes, but what Ali [goalkeeper Alisson] is doing with these finishes, I have no clue how he is doing it. It looks always at the end like it was not a good finish, but I think the finishes were pretty good, just Ali was there. That is really special.
“We are not perfect, not even close to being perfect – the only thing [is] we don’t care about not being perfect, we just try to make the best of – and use – our skills in the best possible way.
“The boys have done that now for a while pretty good and that’s why we have these kind of numbers, but it doesn’t feel a second like it’s really special, it just feels the hardest work. That’s why I am so happy the boys can go now for a week somewhere else, do what they have to do to come back recharged, refreshed. Then we prepare [for] Norwich and the rest of the season.”
Pressed further on the standards Liverpool continue to set and the history they are making: “I know about it, again I have no clue how it should feel, but it is not that I think we are close to something really special.
“The boys have now a week off, we all have a week off, and then we go again. That’s the only thing I know and all the rest we have to see. So many things can happen in football.
“Even when there’s any decision made in the future, whenever that will be, why should we then stop thinking the same way? We have to use the skills of the boys, we have to use the character of the boys, we have to use the power of this club and especially of this stadium. It is our duty to win football games and that’s what we’ve tried now for a while.”
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