Xherdan Shaqiri has compared Liverpool’s mentality to that of the title-winning Bayern Munich and Basel teams he played in.
The midfielder, who has won five league titles in his career, could help Liverpool to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League table with a win at West Ham United on Monday.
What is Shaqiri’s title-winning experience? Five key things to know…
- Shaqiri has impressed for Liverpool since arriving from Stoke City last summer, scoring six goals in 19 league appearances.
- The Swiss international had previously struggled to make an impact at some of Europe’s top clubs in the past, including Bayern Munich and Inter Milan.
- That said, he won back-to-back Bundesliga titles with Bayern in 2012/13 and 2013/14 – it’s worth noting he made only 17 appearances in the latter campaign.
- Shaqiri also won league titles in Switzerland, lifting the Swiss Super League on three occasions with Basel before leaving for Bayern.
- Liverpool haven’t won the English top flight since the 1989-90 season.
Liverpool dropped points against Leicester City at Anfield in midweek, missing the opportunity to go seven points clear of Manchester City.
But Shaqiri has said the Reds have a mentality and focus he has previously experienced with Bayern and Basel which should aid the team’s title push.
“I played in Germany and won titles there, so I have experience of it. It has to be a winning mentality and the players need to be focused,” Shaqiri told Liverpool’s official website.
“The mentality is similar [here]. You need to go into games trying to win them and to give everything to do that.
“I am pretty sure with the talent we have in the team we can achieve a lot.
“Now we need to keep going this hard until the end. To work hard in training, to take the training into the games and to keep going. There is a long way to go, but we are in a very, very good way to be successful.”
Subscribe to Squawka’s Youtube channel: sqwk.at/Squawka-Sub
Shaqiri admits “organised” Foxes were “difficult” to break down
Leicester made things difficult for Liverpool at Anfield, keeping things tight at the back and providing an attacking threat of their own. And Shaqiri has admitted the Foxes were tough to overcome as a result of their organisation.
He said: “I think it was a good point to take in the end, because although we always want to win every game, it was maybe not our best performance this year. So, in the end, it was a draw and we take the point.
“Obviously being five points clear is better than four. We wanted to win the game, but every game is very tough to play. Leicester have a good team, were very well organised – you saw that in the game – and it was difficult against them.
“So, we take the point and we go forward – we are looking to the next game now. Everything is good, so we will just keep going like this. We are looking forward to the next game on Monday, which is very important to win.
“If we continue to stay focused at the highest level, I am confident we are going to [continue to] win games.”
A by-product of being the league leaders is opponents working harder in defence and becoming even more difficult to break down, something Liverpool will have to get used to going into a crucial stage of the season.
Shaqiri and his teammates will be hoping West Ham don’t show a similar level of resilience on Monday night.
The post Liverpool have a similar mentality to Bayern, says Xherdan Shaqiri appeared first on Squawka News.
From Squawka News http://bit.ly/2S9Fkti
No comments:
Post a Comment