OPINION
For the last couple of seasons, Liverpool have been renound for their attractive style of play thanks to the influence of players like Mo Salah and Sadio Mane.
However, playing attractive football cannot always guarantee you the positive results that are wanted the majority of the time, especially if you are competing for honours.
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp has advised Jurgen Klopp’s team that they “must learn to win ugly” if they are serious about overthrowing Manchester City this season – and this is advice that Klopp must adopt on his players to grind out the points needed to keep City on their toes.
If Klopp does not manage to do this, then he is effectively throwing away his team’s chances of title glory at the end of the season.
Sometimes, even a top-quality team like Liverpool can have a bad day, and scoring scruffy goals can often be crucial ones to earn themselves a shabby, but equally important victory.
The Reds need to seek out ways of gaining the edge in closely matched games, something which they struggled to do against Crystal Palace on Monday night.
Their first goal was down to pure luck, as striker Mo Salah was alleged to have dived in the area to earn his team a penalty to put them 1-0 ahead.
However, they failed to gain the edge in this match, allowing Palace to come back at them and really pile on the pressure throughout the game.
A team of Liverpool’s quality must not be allowing teams in the bottom half of the league table to do this, and they were very fortunate to grab a second in stoppage time to seal the win.
The Reds must learn to win ugly and gain an edge in matches to ensure that they are in a good position to take the Premier League title off their rivals.
