Milner: Consistency the next stage of Liverpool's evolution

Cape Town - Liverpool utility player James Milner believes that the Reds have improved in 2018/19 due to an ability to keep winning matches and maintaining clean sheets.

The club battled to a 1-0 victory over Brighton last Saturday which took the side's total to 57 points from 22 Premier League matches. Mohamed Salah's winner on the south coast proved to be the difference.

It is a mark which has only been bettered once since the inception of the Premier League in 1992.

The clean sheet against the Seagulls was the Reds' 13th of the current campaign and only on one other occasion has a team managed to concede fewer than 10 strikes after 22 games.

Milner told Liverpool's official magazine: "I'd certainly say it is a progression. You can see how the team's improved.

"Over the last few years you could see that on our day we could beat anyone but maybe we haven't had that consistency. Now you can see the consistency coming more and more.

"I think we have a good ability of being able to win games in different ways. If things aren't going well for us, we can grind it out, we can play in different styles and that's evidence of us developing as a team, which is important.

"It is a results business and in previous years we have not had that consistency. We have been able to play really well one week but then the next we wouldn't have looked like the same team.

"Gradually we've got better and better at finding that consistency. It starts with the base and the foundation that we have starting from the goalkeeper and the back four, but it's the full squad who have to buy into the defending and how we do that.

"The defensive record's been a base for us this season. In games where maybe, we haven't played as well as we can, we've still been able to nick a 1-0 and stay solid at the back. That's so important if you want to be successful."

Liverpool are next in action on Saturday when they take on Crystal Palace at Anfield. Currently, Jurgen Klopp's men enjoy a four-point gap over Manchester City in second position.