Klopp urges Pool to prove they can hit higher level
LIVERPOOL boss Jurgen Klopp thinks the Reds’ season to date is “so far so good, nothing else”.
Klopp’s men are unbeaten in the Premier League and lie second, level on points with leaders Manchester City and two clear of Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham.
They have won seven of their nine games and scored 16 goals, while conceding only three.
In the Champions League, the Merseysiders — last season’s runners-up — have opened their campaign with a 3-2 victory over Paris St Germain followed by a 1-0 loss at Napoli ahead of hosting Red Star Belgrade tonight.
He was asked at his pre-match press conference about talk of Liverpool not having reached top form this term and what more he felt there was to come.
The German said: “I understand that. Maybe it’s because of post-match interviews of mine, where I said things like that.
“But to be honest, the first job we have to do is to win football games, and we have played really good stuff already this season.
“We can, like all teams in the Premier League probably, do a lot of things better than we have so far, but the basis we have created is a really good one, football-wise and point-wise, and now we have to build on that.”
When it was put to him that he clearly felt Liverpool could go to another level, he said: “We have to prove that. We know it, we feel it. But then we have to show it, that is how it is.
“I don’t have the feeling of being pleased — it’s really so far so good, nothing else.”
Red Star, the 1990-91 European Cup winners who are in the group stage for the first time since the competition’s Champions League rebrand, have so far drawn 0-0 at home with Napoli and been thrashed 6-1 at PSG.
There will not be any of their supporters in Anfield as a punishment for trouble during August’s qualifier at Salzburg.
Klopp, who is expecting a “really difficult” contest, said: “We have to be really together. We are not the most experienced in the Champions League because we came to the final last year.
“We are still fresh compared to other teams, and we have to make sure this one advantage we can have in our home games, our crowd, is there 100 per cent.”
Jordan Henderson and Naby Keita (both hamstring) are out but Sadio Mane (broken thumb) could make his return to action. Not satisfied: Jurgen Klopp wants more from Liverpool
LAST NIGHT’S RESULTS Uefa Champions League
Group E
AEK Athens 0 Bayern Munich 2
Ajax 1 Benfica 0
Group F
Shakhtar Donetsk 0 Man City 3
1899 Hoffenheim 3 Lyon 3
Group G
Real Madrid 2 Viktoria Plzen 1
Roma 3 CSKA Moscow 0
Group H
Young Boys 1 Valencia 1 Manchester United 0 Juventus 1
Ladbrokes Premiership
Dundee 0 Hearts 3
Sky Bet Championship
Birmingham City 2 Reading 1 Middlesbrough 0 Rotherham Utd 0 Millwall 2 Wigan Athletic 1 Norwich City 2 Aston Villa 1 QPR 3 Sheffield Wednesday 0 Sheffield United 1 Stoke City 1 Swansea City 3 Blackburn Rovers 1
Sky Bet League One
Blackpool 1 Scunthorpe United 0 Bradford City 2 Coventry City 4 Bristol Rovers 2 AFC Wimbledon 0 Charlton Athletic 1 Oxford United 1 Doncaster Rovers 0 Sunderland 1 Luton Town 4 Accrington Stanley 1 Peterborough 1 Fleetwood Town 0 Plymouth Argyle 3 Gillingham 1 Portsmouth 2 Burton Albion 2 Shrewsbury Town 3 Barnsley 1
Southend Utd 3 Walsall 0 Wycombe Wdrs 3 Rochdale 0
Sky Bet League Two
Bury 1 Newport County 1 Crawley Town 1 Exeter City 1 Forest Green 3 Tranmere Rovers 1 Grimsby Town 1 Colchester Utd 0
Lincoln City 2 Carlisle Utd 2 Macclesfield T 0 Northampton 5 Milton Keynes Dons 2 Notts Co 1 Morecambe 0 Mansfield Town 1 Oldham Ath 2 Cheltenham Town 0
Stevenage 0 Port Vale 0 Swindon Town 0 Cambridge Utd 2 Yeovil Town 1 Crewe Alexandra 1
Co Antrim Shield
Ballymena Utd 3 Ballyclare Com 0 Crusaders 4 Cliftonville 3 (aet) Linfield 2 Glentoran 1 (aet)
Larne 3 Ards 1
Mid-Ulster Cup
Dungannon 4 Banbridge Rgrs 1 Newry City 1 Warrenpoint Town 2
North West Senior Cup
Coleraine 2 Dergview 1 Portstewart 3 Institute 6 Limavady U A Moyola Park A
(floodlight failure) Ballinamallard Utd 5 Ardstraw 1
TONIGHT’S FIXTURES Uefa Champions League (Kick-off 8pm unless stated)
Group A
Club Brugge v Monaco (5.55pm) Bor Dortmund v Atlético Madrid
Group B
PSV v Tottenham Hotspur (5.55pm)
Barcelona v Inter Milan
Group C
Liverpool v Crvena Zvezda Paris Saint Germain v Napoli
Group D
Galatasaray v FC Schalke 04 Lokomotiv Moscow v FC Porto
Sky Bet Championship
Bristol City v Hull City (7.45pm) Leeds Utd v Ipswich Town (7.45pm) Preston v Brentford (7.45pm) Bolton Wdrs v Nottm Forest West Bromwich v Derby County