Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp: Winning the Premier League is difficult, we are not allowed to lose games anymore

Since the 5000-1 miracle of Jamie Vardy and co being crowed league champions with 81 points, the 90-mark has been broken in every campaign since as Man City and Liverpool redefine what it takes to be title winners

By this point of Leicester’s title-winning season, 18 matchdays in, they were already perched at the summit despite suffering a 1-0 Boxing Day defeat to Liverpool.

Brendan Rodgers’ current crop have superseded that vintage in every respect – four more goals scored, 11 fewer let in, one point better off – except in the standings where it matters most.

They will size up Jurgen Klopp’s side on Boxing Day again this year, but the circumstances have altered considerably since 2015. Leicester, a more formidable prospect now, trail the Premier League’s pacesetters by 10 points having held an 11-point advantage over them back then.

The benchmark has shifted to a staggering level since that 5000-1 miracle of Jamie Vardy and co being crowed champions. They needed just 81 points to lift the trophy in 2015-16 with the 90-mark broken every campaign since, first by Chelsea (93) and then consecutively by Manchester City (100, 98).

Liverpool suffered only one defeat – to Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering machine – last season and finished on 97; the highest total not to win the league.

That painful near miss has been the fuel for their unrelenting form this season along with the appreciation that you have to be near perfect to be England’s best.

Rodgers and his Leicester side are finding out just how exacting the battle is at the top. Bettering the greatest performance in the club’s history is not good enough and losing at City, as they did on Saturday, feels fatalistic.

“I have a great perspective of where we are and respect the level we are at and the improvement we have to make,” the Northern Irishman, who was at the Anfield helm between 2012 to 2015, said.

“The likes of Liverpool and Manchester City are a great benchmark for us and a lot of teams at this level and we have to constantly fight to improve and try to get close to that level.”

When asked if the standard to be title winners has been recalibrated due to the continuous brilliance of his team and Guardiola’s, Klopp underlined the achievement of the defending champions in dictating the new status quo.

“I think City moved the bar massively, massively,” he said. “The kind of consistency they showed in the last three years is incredible and difficult, very difficult to do. So they became champions two years ago and last year we helped a lot and they helped us as a lot as we tried to catch up with them. They did it in an incredible way.

“It has changed, it is not allowed to lose games anymore. It is difficult, obviously, but winning the Premier League should be difficult, it is such a strong league with all the teams you see now.”

Liverpool clinched the Club World Cup in Qatar (EPA)

Klopp noted the battle at the bottom of the table and the scramble to secure a Champions League spot to underscore his point.

“Watford looked like they were gone, relegated, but Nigel [Pearson] comes in. They came to Anfield and did a good performance and then won the next week [against Manchester United] and everyone down there is on their toes again. Now everyone is fighting for every point they can get, which makes it difficult.

“It looked like the top four were already gone for a while and then all of a sudden seven or eight teams will fight for being in the Champions League and Europa League. You have to be ready every three days to win a football game.

“We know that, so don’t think about the last game we won, we don’t think about the one after the next one, we think only about the next one. With all the problems and difficulties we face that is pretty much a plan and sometimes it works out. That is what we do.”

Liverpool travel to King Power Stadium to resume their crusade to become champions of England after bagging the Club World Cup in Qatar, their third trophy in six months.

“If you have a little bit of success and you get carried away by it you will quickly realise it is your last one,” Klopp said, batting away any threat of complacency. “We don’t get carried away for nothing, absolutely not. We’re completely focused on the next step. I was always like this.

“I never in my life wanted to have a party before there was a reason. When there is a party for a reason I am in it 100 per cent, but I do not have 20 per cent parties. I can wait for it. No chance to get us in a mood where we could forget the things we have to do. The next time to prove that is Leicester on Boxing Day.”