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Liverpool: The hungriest team in the Premier League are feasting right now

By Craig Pearson

Liverpool players celebrate after Liverpool's Estonian defender Ragnar Klavan (C hidden) scored the opening goal during the English League Cup third-round football match between Derby County and Liverpool at iPro Stadium in Derby, central England on September 20, 2016. / AFP / PAUL ELLIS / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. / (Photo credit should read PAUL ELLIS/AFP/Getty Images)
Liverpool players celebrate after Liverpool's Estonian defender Ragnar Klavan (C hidden) scored the opening goal during the English League Cup third-round football match between Derby County and Liverpool at iPro Stadium in Derby, central England on September 20, 2016. / AFP / PAUL ELLIS / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. / (Photo credit should read PAUL ELLIS/AFP/Getty Images) /
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Liverpool are flying in the early stages of the season and the hunger of Jurgen Klopp’s men is shining through more than anything else.

Liverpool are showing their hunger this season like nobody else. The Premier League is known as the league where every team is hungry, plays with desire and fights to the death. You never get a day off.

But Liverpool, under Jurgen Klopp, are showing that amongst the hungry, they are the hungriest. The Reds’ incessant pressing to win the ball back high up the pitch is a feature of their play. It takes a team to do that. A unit. No weak links.

Liverpool are a team. A well drilled one. They are what they are and everybody knows what is coming when they face Klopp’s team now. Manchester City, too, are pressing aggressively under Pep Guardiola. But the ferocity and intensity of Liverpool seems a notch higher right now.

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The Reds have won four games so far, with one draw and one loss. Not the most mind blowing of starts numerically. But on the field, teams are struggling to deal with Liverpool’s style. The loss against Burnley served as a reminder that they are perhaps not title contenders yet.

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The team often struggled last season against the teams lower down the table. Teams who were compact and didn’t try to play out from the back. But the 5-1 win over Hull City at the weekend showed they are learning.

Granted, Hull had a man sent off after 29 minutes. It was only 1-0 at that point when Ahmed Elmohamady was dismissed for handball, gifting Liverpool a penalty in the process. But the onslaught was suffocating.

The hunger smacked you in the face. The desire to work hard and win the ball back quickly. Hunting in packs, giving the opposition no rest time whatsoever. Not exactly revolutionary stuff. Work hard. Run a lot.

In fact it sounds like a team nearer the bottom of the table who lacks the talent to compete. But that’s why Liverpool stand out right now. They are a talented group of players. Fairly expensive, too. And yet they also work extremely work hard.

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There are less talented teams than Liverpool in the Premier League who don’t work as hard as they do. There’s no excuse for that, really. How can you justify that? But that’s why they are having the results they are right now.

Title contenders? Top four contender? It’s too early to really say what Liverpool are right now. But one thing you can tag them as is hungry. The hungriest around at present.

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