Defending Champions Liverpool lost the chance to reclaim their position at the top of the Premier League table as their clash against title-challengers Manchester United, at the Anfield, ended in a goalless draw on Sunday.
This was Liverpool’s fourth consecutive draw in the league and that has seen them slipping down to the third spot in the table, behind Manchester United and Leicester City.
Midfielder Thiago Alcantara thinks that they need to play much better if they want to reach the summit of the table again. So he has urged his teammates to raise their game in order to defend their title.
“Without winning, we are never satisfied. We made a superb first half, then the second half was 50-50,” the ex-Barcelona and Bayern Munich midfielder explained to Liverpool’s official website after the final whistle.
“We are happy in some way with our performance – how we did in some moments of the game – but we have to do much better to be on top of the league.
“We were intense, we were creating the chances that made us closer to winning. When we didn’t realise and didn’t make the goals, we’re just getting our self-confidence a bit down and that’s why the game changed a bit. At the end, it’s football and in some minutes of the game you are in high emotions and sometimes you are low – it’s part of the game.
“At the end, we have the privilege to play football, to keep having our work, our love: that is playing football here. And we have to defend the desire of the people to be here. We have to play for them because it’s a hard moment for all of us. For sure, with fans everything is different.”
One of the main reasons behind Liverpool’s struggles in recent games has been their failure score. They have now gone three matches without scoring. Thiago, however, believes that goals will start coming again.
“Look at the guys we have in front – not just the big three, let’s say that,” he added.
“We have Div [Origi], we have Shaq [Xherdan Shaqiri], we have Taki [Takumi Minamino], we have many players that can score, people in the midfield that can score as well, people from the defence can score. It’s a matter of creating the chances that we are creating to be effective.”
