Xherdan Shaqiri is not surprised Liverpool dominated a ‘defensive’ Manchester United.
Shaqiri’s late second half brace saw the Reds return to the Premier League’s summit with a comprehensive 3-1 win over Jose Mourinho’s beleaguered side.
The current leaders recorded 36 shots at goal compared to United’s six with all 12 outfield players used contributing to the tally in Sunday’s Anfield victory.
But Shaqiri admits that the statistics against the Red Devils did not raise many eyebrows.
He said: “I’m not surprised. We know Manchester United plays defensively.
“They aren’t going to have a lot of ball possession and it was important to play with high intensity, to press them high, to have the second balls and play forward fast to try and create a lot of chances.
“We did that but obviously in the second half much better, and we scored in the end another two goals.
“We need to maybe do that better before, take the chances to score, because against big teams you have to take chances because the big teams can have only one chance and score.
“We managed that very well.”
A sixth straight league win allowed Jurgen Klopp’s side to maintain some breathing space from second-placed Manchester City in this season’s title race.
Swiss international Shaqiri remains confident that Liverpool can remain ahead of the reigning champions in their bid to end a 29-year wait for domestic success.
“We try to stay there as long as we can,” he added.
“We need to keep going like this, work hard every day and take it game by game because we know how difficult it is in the Premier League to win games and we need every game to have a high level of performance.
“If we keep going like this, we don’t know what will happen in the end but I hope we can have a nice end of the season. If you play only with 80% in the Premier League you can lose, so you have to be always 100%.
“How we do that at the moment, we manage that very well and I hope we can stay at this level.”