Wijnaldum happy for Liverpool to win ugly

September 30, 2019 | 16:03

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Georginio Wijnaldum insists Liverpool are happy to win ugly as they chase the club's first English league title since 1990.

wijnaldum happy for liverpool to win ugly

Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum celebrates his winner at Sheffield United. (AFP/Paul ELLIS)

Wijnaldum scored a lucky winner in Saturday's 1-0 victory at Sheffield United when his shot was fumbled into the net by Blades keeper Dean Henderson.

Jurgen Klopp's side were at their best but they coped with a tough test to make it seven successive wins to start the Premier League season.

Liverpool sit five points clear of champions Manchester City and Dutch midfielder Wijnaldum says their hard-fought win at Bramall Lane shows the progress made under Klopp.

"Every win feels like a big win now. This was really difficult but we still won it," Wijnaldum said.

"You see we make progression with what we did. Back in previous years we had to play good to win the games. Now we play bad and still win games.

"When you comes to teams like this it is always going to be hard. We went to Burnley back in the day and it was really difficult.

"This season we won there but that was also because we put a lot of effort in. On the other side we also know we have the quality to play.

"I think progress we have made is that we win the games we haven't played well in."

Last season, when they were pipped to the title by one point on the last day of the season, Liverpool drew seven matches.

Winning the Champions League more than made up for their title near-miss, but Wijnaldum believes they can end City's reign if they keep winning tense games like Saturday's.

"Even last season, towards the end, we didn't play really good but we were just trying to collect as many points as possible," he said.

"Hopefully when we don't play well we can still win games.

"Up to now it has been good but we have to make sure it stays like that. We still have to have the progression and do even better."

AFP

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