Time to get Liverpool on a roll, says Jurgen Klopp

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp is in no doubt his players have plenty of talent and character, but now he wants them to develop consistency.

The Reds’ 1-0 home win on St Stephen’s Day against Leicester was their first in four Premier League games, and directly followed a 3-0 loss at Watford.

Since Klopp took over in October, Liverpool’s record in the league shows four victories — including impressive triumphs at Chelsea and Manchester City — plus three draws and three defeats.

As he looked ahead to the top-flight game against the Black Cats, the German said: “There’s no doubt about the individual quality of the players, there’s no doubt about the character.

“What we have to create is a stable level of performance, that’s what we have to work on.

“Now, the next station is Sunderland and we have to go there and be concentrated from the first second, like we were against Leicester.

“[It was] a really good start in that game, I was happy about this, and now we have to do it again.

“That’s the thing. If we do this, then we can get results in a row, but it’s no presents, we have to work for it.”

Klopp, whose side are 10th in the table, has emphasised the importance of securing three points against Sunderland rather than trying to “show how football should be”.

He is confident his men will take the right mental approach as they face a side currently struggling and one place from the bottom of the league.

“Now, we have to play against Sunderland and we don’t want to go there and show how football should be,” Klopp said. “We’ll go there and want to win, that’s what we have to show.

“There’s no reason to doubt the mentality of the team, that they’ll maybe think ‘it’s only Sunderland’ or anything like that. How I know them, nobody in the team is like this.

“We want to improve our situation, we want to develop, and we want to get more points in this very, very important moment in the league, the end of December, January. There are so many points in the end of December and January. It’s unbelievable and you should take every one you can.”

Liverpool are likely to be without striker Divock Origi for tonight’s match.

Klopp has admitted it would take a “miracle” for Origi to recover from the hamstring injury he suffered during the Leicester contest and he is expected to join frontman Daniel Sturridge on the sidelines as he works his way back to match fitness from a similar problem.

Jordon Ibe has returned to training after illness and a late decision will be taken on his involvement, but fellow midfielder James Milner is still out with a calf injury.

Meanwhile, Jordan Henderson is backing Sam Allardyce to keep home-town club Sunderland in the Barclays Premier League, but he is determined to pile on the misery on his return tonight to the Stadium of Light.

The 25-year-old Liverpool skipper and his team-mates head to Wearside determined to build upon their 1-0 victory over leaders Leicester by condemning the Black Cats to a fifth successive defeat.

Henderson came through the ranks at Sunderland, before earning a £16m switch to Anfield in June 2011, but he will have only one aim in mind tonight.

Asked about Allardyce, he said: “He’s a good enough manager to keep them up, but the only thing that will be on my mind will be to get the three points.”

Liverpool’s win over the Foxes was their first in five attempts in all competitions and followed a shock 3-0 defeat at promoted Watford.

Henderson admitted the Reds had to play clever football to see off Leicester, and he is expecting to have to do much the same at Sunderland if they are to prosper again.

He said: “We need to be more clever. With the conditions at Watford and the wind, we tried to overplay at times and that sort of killed us.

“We need to play more clever football, which is what we did against Leicester, by playing in behind their defence more, and that gave us a platform.

“We will have to be clever again at Sunderland, because it will be a difficult game for us, so we need to make sure we do the same as we did against Leicester. We need to find different solutions in games and make sure we win the battle.”