Liverpool players know that they cannot solely rely on the attacking and attractive football philosophy that has seen them run riot sweep past so many teams this season.
Liverpool have admittedly played the most attractive form of football this season and their fluid, goal-laden performances have not gone unnoticed. However, the players know that ultimately its just the win that will get them to where their aspirations lie.
The 2-1 win over Sunderland, the Reds’ seventh in succession, was one which illustrated this point. It was an anxious win where Liverpool were initially leading 2-0 but Sunderland made life very difficult for the Reds in the second half and scored once to give the home side some jitters with a threat of a potential draw and a share of points.
Brendan Rodgers’ side are Premier League’s highest scoring side withAi??84 goals, but Daniel Sturridge has accepted that they might need more performances like that against Sunderland if they want to continue their current string of victories:
“There are seven games to go and each one will be difficult and different in its own way,
“For me I don’t get too excited, I just take each game as it comes as it is different opposition, different styles of play and we have to change the way we play against each team to try to get the result by whichever means necessary.
“It wasn’t easy. It never is when a team defends so deep and puts so many bodies behind the ball, but in the first half we were patient and we worked hard to break them down and in the end we got the result we needed.
“Our back four defended well and we just try our best to do a job in front of them and they focus on doing their job.
“You have to grind results out sometimes. You have to do the dirty things to get the result you want, it is not always going to be easy.”
Daniel Agger also echoed Sturridge’s sentiments and said that the Reds would sometimes need to win in the manner they won against Sunderland for them to keep getting positive results:
“At the end of the day it was three points and that was exactly what we came for.Ai??We wanted to close the game earlier – it was unnecessary to let them into the game.
“But sometimes it’s like that and you have to defend and we did that.
“I think we had them under control in the first half, and we should have continued like that. But that’s football. In the first half we were patient and we worked hard to break them down.
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