Xherdan Shaqiri says Liverpool do not feel nervous in Premier League title race
West Ham vs Liverpool is live on Monday Night Football from 7pm
Monday 4 February 2019 18:53, UK
Xherdan Shaqiri says Liverpool are not feeling any nerves as they continue their Premier League title bid with a trip to West Ham on Monday, live on Sky Sports.
Jurgen Klopp's side are two points ahead at the top of the table after Manchester City cut the gap with a 3-1 win over Arsenal.
Liverpool missed the chance to move seven points clear last Wednesday as they were held to a 1-1 draw at Anfield by Leicester.
But Shaqiri told Sky Sports nerves were not a factor in that result, and will not be for Liverpool going forward.
He said: "I don't feel any nervousness in the team. This team wants to win every game.
"I don't see any nerves here. We work every day. We go game by game and our mentality has to be to stay until the end of the season in first place.
Live MNF
"Maybe the fans are more nervous than us, this is pretty normal. I had the same at Bayern Munich. We don't get nervous, we just play our game and try to win games and work hard in training. We have to keep going forward."
Liverpool face some tricky games in the next month as they play Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 clash and then Manchester United and Everton in the Premier League.
Shaqiri says Liverpool need to be at their "highest level" to maintain their title run.
"Every player wants to win titles, that has to be our mentality, and to win games to be successful," the 27-year-old said. "Obviously our goal is to be successful.
"First of all it is to play Champions League next year, that's very important, and we want to achieve big things in the future. It should be our goal to win titles, but at the moment it's a very long way to go. We have to keep going, work hard and win games.
"The team is mature enough to be successful and to win as many games as we can. We showed in the first half of the season how good we are - we didn't lose one game.
"There is a chance here to be successful, and why not take the chance? We are in a very good way. It's still a long way to go, we have tough games coming up and we have to be at the highest level to win these games. To be successful you need to be at the best level."
