Virgil van Dijk says Liverpool’s commanding Premier League title race lead ‘doesn’t mean anything’.
Saturday’s 2-1 win over Brighton allowed Jurgen Klopp’s side to open up an 11-point gap on the chasing pack following Manchester City’s draw with Newcastle.
The Reds could conceivably increase their advantage further if the reigning champions drop further points against Manchester United next weekend.
But Van Dijk insists that Liverpool are not taking their comfortable double-figure margin for granted and believes there are still areas for improvement.
He said: “The gap doesn’t mean anything.
“We are in a good situation points-wise but we know we can do maybe that extra 10 per cent still and we try to do it every week but it is not easy.
“The only thing we can do is to try it and hopefully it will work out, but the most important thing is to win the games.
“I think if you look at the way we play and the quality we have we could do a little bit better but that is something for us to have a look at.
“We know we can play a little bit better than we do, but we win games and that at the end of the day is what it is all about.
“The good thing is that we know we can improve and will try and do it elsewhere.”
The European champions head into Wednesday’s Merseyside derby clash with Everton on the back of a two-month drought of clean sheets in the league.
Brighton’s reducer came from a sloppily defender free kick immediately moments after Alisson had been sent off for handling the ball outside of his penalty area.
And Van Dijk, whose first half brace tipped the balance of the game, echoed the Brazilian’s frustrations at Liverpool’s lack of recent shut-outs.
“It annoys me but if you look at the goal again [for Brighton] it is a bit unlucky I think,” he added.
“We want to improve but if you are going to look at negatives, it is a negative to be fair. But we are winning games so we shouldn’t look too much at it.
“As a defence, we know we can do a lot better than we do especially with the clean sheets. If we are winning games then we shouldn’t look too much at it.”