Klopp: We have to be a pain in the backside for every team we play

Jurgen Klopp says that Champions League qualification is the main goal of his team for this season after registering a 3-1 win against Aston Villa on Monday evening, which is their third league win in succession.

While this campaign has been stop-start season due to the World Cup, Liverpool have struggled to get any true momentum in the league from the get-go, in fact this current winning streak is their largest of the season so far.

That inconsistency has really put pay to any hopes of going one better than last season, but there is still plenty to play for and speaking to assembled media after the victory (per the Official site), Klopp said plenty of work still needs to be done.

“Look, we have to be the pain in the backside for everybody. That’s how it is. Of course, we have to chase. We are not in the best position, there’s [a] difference between us and other teams, we all know that. The first two [or] three are maybe too far away.

“But we have teams, we are there, they are in the Champions League spots at the moment. We have to do our part, we have to do our part and that means winning football games and we will see how close we can get.

“It must be the target to qualify for the Champions League and for that we have a lot of games to go for and we all have to go through difficult moments in games, between games, after games, all these kind of things. And for today, we got three points and that’s the best way to get closer to these spots."

The performance of Darwin Nunez was rather symbolic of his time with his new club. At times wasteful and frustrating, but at others extremely exciting and when you scratch under the surface, you can certainly see there is a great deal to work with.

The fact that his performance earned Man of the match honours was indication of how much of a handful he was for Villa defenders despite not getting on the scoresheet.

Klopp said the involvement of Nunez for the third goal by youngster Stefan Bajcetic was a fantastic piece of play.

"What I really love and it’s so special that in the third goal, I think pretty much everybody here, if you’re ever in a situation like that, that (Nunez) had where he just missed the last little touch to score a goal, we all would have just hammered the ball and try to force it.

“And he passed the ball to Stefan, so we can score the third goal, that makes him really special, the work-rate he put in, the spaces, the depth he creates for us. Pretty much he’s unstoppable in the moment when we keep the ball and pass it in the right moment, there’s no defender who can really catch up speed-wise.

“I know all the stories around and it’s all fine, but we are completely calm, everything will be fine. He played an exceptional game tonight and we won 3-1 and that’s all that counts.”