Liverpool must improve significantly if they want to continue in the Champions League, defender Jamie Carragher has warned.
Carra was straight to the point when he suggested that Wednesday’s match against Standard Liege would be a serious challenge.
“We haven’t clicked yet, there is no hiding from that, and if we perform as we have done over the last few weeks it is going to be extremely difficult to beat Standard Liege on Wednesday.
“They are not a Mickey Mouse team. They won their domestic league and they proved in the first leg how good they are.
“We realise we have to step it up a level on Wednesday but we have won two out of two and long may that continue.
“We know we will improve. We’ve got too many good players to keep performing the way we are doing at the moment so I’m sure it will turn, but we have to be delighted with the results.”
Despite taking joint top in the Premiership, JC has also urged caution.
“It is too early in the season to say where we are as a team. The proof that we have improved will be there after several months if we haven’t had too many draws and losses.
“There is a lot of pressure when you play for Liverpool and I know what the headlines would have been had we lost to Middlesbrough – they would have said the title’s over. I’ve been here long enough to know what it’s like so to reverse it and go top of the league shows what fine lines there are in football.
“I’m sure there would have been a lot of criticism of players and the manager had we lost but we are top of the league and that’s the difference.”
Carragher, who scored from a deflected free-kick, doesn’t expect to be handed the goal by the Premier League panel
“I want to claim it but it’s not the end of the world if I don’t get it,” added the Liverpool defender. “I’m hardly going to break any goalscoring records am I?”
Of Saturday’s game, Carragher said: “Middlesbrough performed well. It was a great strike from Mido and, to be honest, I couldn’t really see us scoring.
“They defended very well but I’ve seen that happen so often, we have done it so many times at Anfield, where all of a sudden something just happens in the last 10 minutes and the Kop sucks a goal in.
“We have been doing that for 40 years, since the days of Bill Shankly.”
How great is Carra – he’s 100% correct.