James Milner has opened up on the frustration in the Liverpool dressing room at their difficult start to the season – but admits the Reds must start coping better with their injury list.
Jurgen Klopp’s side have dropped to ninth place in the Premier League having suffered a new low when they were beaten at home by struggling Leeds United on Saturday.
The Champions League has offered some respite with Liverpool having secured their place in the knockout stages last week with a game to spare with a 3-0 win at Ajax.
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And as they prepare to entertain Napoli on Tuesday in their Group A finale – needing to win by four clear goals to overhaul the Italians as group winners – Milner has lifted the lid on how the Liverpool squad are reacting to their troubles.
“There is always frustration,” he said. “The expectation we have on ourselves and the fans, given how we performed over recent years and the success we have had, when things don’t go well it is tough and we are frustrated and trying to put it right.
"The performances are there in certain games but we are not performing to the level we should be consistently enough.
“In times when things aren’t going well, especially at a massive club like Liverpool, there are going to be questions outside and criticism, and deservedly so given the standards we have set ourselves over the last few years.
“But it is so important we stick together and the opinions within the dressing room are the only ones that count. Can we help each other out, can we work harder, can we fix the things and analyse the games we are doing well and not doing well and try and put it right?”
Liverpool have come in for fierce criticism for their inconsistent form that has seen them record their worst start to a season since Roy Hodgson’s tenure in 2010. And while Milner is content to ignore the outside noise, he believes the squad have to regain the ability to adapt despite an absentee list that has seen 19 different players miss at least one game already this campaign.
“I don’t take too much notice whether things are good or bad,” said the Liverpool vice-captain. “Things change very quickly. You can’t get too high when things are going well and too low when they aren’t. (It’s better) the more you keep an even keel.
“When things are going well they are going be blown out of proportion, you win the first six games of the season and you are going to be unbeaten, you have a bad run and you’re going to be relegated. That’s the way of the world.
“If there was one easy fix you would know and you’d fix it. To be a successful team there are so many little things you need to do well and at this moment in time we are not doing enough consistently enough. That’s the big word.
“It has been intense, it has been hard to get a rhythm with a few players out and not having a settled line-up. That is something we have to deal with and deal with better. It’s something we have had in years gone by and we dealt with better at times and something we can step up and deal with again. The amount of games we have had, the amount of games we had last year and the short rest, it’s obviously a factor.”
Napoli are five points clear at the top of Serie A and thrashed Liverpool 4-1 at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in the group opener back in September. But while Klopp is expected to rotate his squad, Milner is convinced the game represents an opportunity for the Reds to gain some momentum and confidence.
“Napoli are obviously a very good team, we have seen how well they have played and not just this season,” he said. “They know what they are doing and are playing as a team. It’s a perfect game for us, we are coming up against one of the best teams in Europe at this time and it’s a great test for us to put in a performance we can build on.”
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