Tenacious Reds

Klopp hails team’s focus as Liverpool power 22 points clear

JURGEN KLOPP saluted Liverpool’s steely focus after they surged 22 points clear at the top of the Premier League with a 4-0 rout of Southampton yesterday.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jordan Henderson put the runaway leaders in control at Anfield before Mohamed Salah’s double made it an astonishing 100 League points from the last 102 available to them.

A 24th victory in 25 League matches this season and ninth clean sheet in 10 games underlined how Klopp’s side have turned the title race into a procession.

The 22-point lead is the largest in the division’s history and the win also means Liverpool have gone 42 league games without defeat, matching Nottingham Forest’s run in 1977-78 and behind only Arsenal’s 49-game mark in 200304.

But Klopp claimed the struggles they experienced in the first half against Southampton demonstrated why he and his players still refuse to start celebrating the title prematurely.

“It’s easy for me to use this game as a description for the situation here,” Klopp said.

“Just incredibly difficult opponents to play against. They’re not here to be part of any party. They want to hurt us, beat us.

“We have to throw everything we have on the pitch and, thankfully, the boys do that. That’s why we are where we are. But we don’t take that for granted, not for a second.

“I promise you, I don’t lie. I’m a very optimistic person but the day before every game my main feeling is concern because I know anything can happen.

“I have never seen anything like it. It is not that I feel stronger and stronger, it is just one great celebration, sometimes more, sometimes less, and then relief, settle, go again.”

The ever-growing list of records that Liverpool are amassing proves that, while Klopp is reluctant, his team’s supporters can certainly start their celebrations.

“The attitude and the mentality of the boys made it possible we could win this game. It looked not only tricky – Southampton is too good to be a banana skin – but it looked today it would probably happen,” Klopp said.

“The boys put a sensational shift in. Everyone went to the point and beyond. We didn’t want to have a 22-point difference today. We wanted to have 73 points.”

Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl said before the game he wanted his side to “show how far we have come, how competitive we are”.

They certainly did especially in the first half.

The Saints had 10 shots in the

that, first half against Liverpool, the most the Reds have faced in the opening 45 minutes of a Premier League match at Anfield since Chelsea in November 2014.

“Maybe the result is a little high but I would like to watch this game if we had gone a goal up” Southampton manager Ralph Hasenhuttl said.

“The best team in the world, for 50 minutes had no real chances and we had a massive one.

“The way we played was unbelievably good and I am proud and stand by our plan… But in the end it was a deserved win for Liverpool.

“We played the best we can so I am very proud.” – AFP/Agencies