Liverpool vs Crvena Zvezda - Klopp plays it cool on Liverpool form

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp thinks the Reds’ season to date is “so far so good, nothing else”.

Klopp’s men are unbeaten in the Premier League and lie second, level on points with leaders Manchester City and two clear of Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham.

They have won seven of their nine games and scored 16 goals, while conceding only three.

In the Champions League, the Merseysiders – last season’s beaten finalists – have opened their campaign with a 3-2 victory over Paris St Germain followed by a 1-0 loss at Napoli, and their next fixture sees them host Red Star Belgrade on Wednesday.

Klopp said after Saturday’s 1-0 victory at Huddersfield “it’s maybe the first period in my life that we are winning average matches” and added that while there are different ways to win, “sometimes I prefer the spectacular way.”

He was asked at his pre-match press conference on Tuesday about talk of Liverpool not having reached top form so far this term and what more he felt there was to come.

And the German said: “I understand that, 100 per cent. Maybe it’s because of one or the other post-match interview of mine, where I said things like that.

“But to be honest, the first job we have to do is to win football games, and we played really good stuff already this season.

“We can of course, like all teams in the Premier League probably, do a lot of things better than we did so far, but the basis we have created is a really good one, football-wise and point-wise, and now we have to build on that.”

When it was put to him that he clearly felt Liverpool could go to another level, he said: “We have to prove that.

“We know it, we feel it. Probably everybody knows it. But then we have to show it, that that is how it is. I cannot sit here and say (clicks his fingers) and it will click.

“I don’t have the feeling of being pleased – it’s really that I think so far so good, nothing else.”

Jordan Henderson and Naby Keita (both hamstring) will miss out against Red Star but Sadio Mane could make his return to action after missing the Huddersfield clash with a broken thumb.

UEFA banned Red Star from selling tickets to their fans for this fixture and their first away game in Group C, at Paris St Germain earlier this month, as a punishment for trouble at August’s qualifying match at Salzburg.

Having drawn their opener in the pool 0-0 at home against Napoli, Red Star were thrashed 6-1 in the PSG contest.

They currently lead the Serbian Superliga by seven points after 12 games, having won 11 of those matches and drawn the other.

And defender Milos Degenek said: “The players are feeling in excellent mood. We are all well prepared, and we expect a good match tomorrow. We are looking forward to it.

“This is our third match, and we have two matches without our supporters, but there’s not much we can do (about that) – we’ll do our best without them.

“We are confident. We are doing well in our league. It’s going to a very difficult game – we expect that. It’s not going to be easy. But we’re going to go in confident, with our heads held high and do our best.”