Former Liverpool star issues warning after narrow win over West Ham United

Former Liverpool winger Steve McManaman has urged the Reds squad to continue their upturn in form over a hectic couple of weeks.

Jurgen Klopp’s side went into Wednesday night’s home game with West Ham United on the back of Sunday’s impressive win over reigning Premier League champions Manchester City.  For the second time in four days, the Reds kept a clean sheet and claimed all three points as Darwin Nunez’s fine header was enough to see off the Hammers.

The win takes Liverpool into seventh place in the Premier League table and they now lie just four points shy of the Champions League spots.  But Klopp and his players will have to face a hectic schedule over the coming weeks with four Premier League fixtures, two Champions League group stage ties and a Carabao Cup meeting with League One side Derby all lying ahead before the World Cup break.

McManaman praised the Reds squad for coming through a testing part of the season when injuries hampered any attempts to gain momentum - but he issued a warning that the standard would need to remain at a high level as his former club challenge for silverware on a number of fronts.

He told Amazon Sport: “They’ve had them (difficult times), haven’t they? When they lost six on the bounce, through that time when they had wretched injury problems, they had to battle on, get together and knuckle down.

“It’s not hard as a footballer because you cannot have good times all of the time.  You’ll have injuries, you’ll go through bad form, you’ll go through bad results, so you have to just find something without and think ‘come on, let’s get a result and work hard’.  This week has been a very good week but as we said before the game, they have to go to Nottingham Forest, who are not playing well themselves and get another result and then they have to turn up in Amsterdam and get another result.

“That’s the thing about playing for Liverpool Football Club.  Every single game, there’s pressure on you to perform, to score goals and to win the game.”

Liverpool are back in action on Saturday lunchtime when they visit relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest.