Jürgen Klopp has told his players they need to achieve more consistency ahead of tonight's league visit to Sunderland.

Since Klopp took over in October, Liverpool’s record in the league shows four victories, three draws and three defeats with their 1-0 home win on St Stephen’s Day against Leicester their first victory in four league games following a 3-0 loss at Watford.

“There’s no doubt about the individual quality of the players, there’s no doubt about the character,” Klopp said. “What we have to create is a stable level of performance.

“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 and now we have to do it again. 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, emphasised the importance of securing three points against Sam Allardyce’s team, who are struggling in second-bottom place. “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. Nobody in the team is like this.

Unbelievable

“We want to get more points in this very, very important moment in the league. 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 Divock Origi tonight after the striker suffered a hamstring injury during the Leicester game while Daniel Sturridge is still working 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 his fellow midfielder James Milner is still out with a calf injury. Guardian Service