Liverpool have been warned that their luck will run out eventually, with Danny Murphy seeing cause for concern in recent performances, despite a standing at the Premier League summit being established.
The Reds remain faultless in domestic competition this season, with 21 points taken from seven outings to date.
Jurgen Klopp’s side have already opened up clear daylight between themselves and defending champions Manchester City, with a run of successive victories in the English top-flight stretched to 16.
That sequence of results has helped to raise expectations again at Anfield, with a battling 1-0 win at Sheffield United on Saturday proving that Liverpool are capable of grinding out results.
Murphy admits that is a useful quality to boast, but the former Reds midfielder believes collective standards need to be raised if a title bid is to be sustained in 2019-20.
He told talkSPORT when pressed on how Klopp will be assessing his side: “I think he will be a bit concerned.
“When you are a top team and you’re having the success Liverpool are having, you play sometimes in a comfort zone; what I mean by that is, you’re playing Sheffield United away and you start the game a bit lackadaisical, thinking ‘we’re better than these’ and with a ‘we only have to turn up’ type attitude.
“And then you are on the back foot.
“But they never went a goal behind, and they do what they need to do to get through the game.
“But you can’t keep doing that and getting away with it.
“They got the win through a bad goalkeeping error, but the mindset has to be a bit better and sharper from Liverpool, because they have got away with it in recent weeks.
“I’m all for them winning ugly, but the overall performance in recent weeks will be concerning, because a performance, if it is bad, will generally get punished. And good performances get you wins generally.
“Liverpool can play better than they are, which is great, and if they play better they will probably win more matches.
“But the thing at the moment is playing average and winning games is a great habit to have, but you have to be careful, because the level of performance for Liverpool and bar they’ve set themselves hasn’t been good enough.”
Liverpool have one more Premier League outing to take in before the next international break, at home to Leicester on Saturday, but have Champions League duty to contend with before then as Red Bull Salzburg prepare to pay a visit to Anfield on Wednesday.