GREED is good as far as Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is concerned as he seeks to establish high-level consistency.
The Reds were excellent in the 4-1 win over Premier League champions Leicester last Saturday, but performances this season have not all met the same standards. After impressively beating Arsenal at the Emirates 4-3 on the opening weekend of the season, they proceeded to lose 2-0 at promoted Burnley the following week.
Key for Klopp now is to replicate the best performances week after week, starting at Chelsea on Friday night, but he expects the players to provide their own motivation. Asked how his squad they could replicate the football which cut Leicester to shreds the German said: "Staying greedy.
"The movement was brilliant, everybody saw it. Daniel [Sturridge] was involved in three goals: the first one was a brilliant run and brilliant movement with Roberto [Firmino]. Roberto can make exactly the same run but, if Daniel doesn't make the run, he's not free in front of goal. That's how football is. Being this kind of flexible is the key for all games. It's not about the players. It's about the behaviour in the position. It's about timing, doing the right thing in the right moment and using the confidence, which can grow in a game when you are in a good moment.
"There's a lot of space for improvement and we need to improve for the Chelsea game of course because they are so experienced. If they want, on specific days they can play a really ugly game where nothing really works, but they always stay cool and, in the right moment, [score a] goal and nobody cares. Because we are much younger, we need something like good moments in a game to take the next good moment and the next good moment.
"Experience, when you use it right, makes you stronger and that's their only real advantage. They are more experienced, but we are the challenger and we want to go there and create real problems for them. That's how it is. We want to be strong in our kind [of play] and get a result."
Against Leicester, Adam Lallana scored his second goal in a week and his third in six matches for club and country. It took the England midfielder until January to reach that mark last season but, this campaign, he has grown in confidence, seemingly benefiting from playing in a deeper role in midfield rather than as a forward. He covered 13.1 kilometres in that game, beating the Premier League's best this season (12.5km) set by the same player against Tottenham a fortnight ago.
Klopp rates the 28-year-old, who lives next door to him in Formby, highly and appears to have found a role which is getting the best out of him: "Adam was, from the first second, important," said Klopp on his thoughts about the midfielder when he initially took over almost a year ago.
"I knew him from Southampton and I thought he was a really good player. To be honest, I didn't see too much from when he played for Liverpool, but I knew from Southampton he was a brilliant player. Since we worked together, it's always getting better. He can play different positions, he's quick, he's mentally strong, he's a smart player.
"He is very important for the team - as a person and as a player. Everybody who has the possibility to speak to him knows he's a very smart guy and he's really settled in Liverpool. He's a nice guy, even as a neighbour. I have a few other neighbours who are nice, but they are not that good as footballers."
