Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum admits belief within the squad is so high he struggles to remember the last time he thought they would lose.
The club’s only loss this season was in the 2-0 Champions League reverse against Napoli, a match the Netherlands midfielder did not feature in until the 66th minute.
Since then they have pulled off some miraculous escapes with late goals against Leicester, Manchester United and Arsenal and have earned a reputation for never giving up.
That will be tested to the limit on Sunday when defending champions Manchester City arrive at Anfield looking to halve the six-point leader Liverpool have over them at the top of the table.
So have they extinguished that losing feeling?
“Difficult. We just create that thing that we know we always can turn things around,” said the Dutchman.
“We always have that feeling, to stay positive. That’s also because of the results we had until now, and the way we came back.
“Our mindset is different, which is quite good, because we keep doing the things we want to do in a game.
“Normally if you are 2-0 down, your body language is going to change, but we still have that mindset that we can still turn it around.
“It’s because of the belief we have in each other, but also the results we have had. We have [turned games around] a lot of times. That gives confidence.
“If it just happened once, it’s not the same. But it happened over and over. We know we are a team that can always come back from difficult situations—but of course we don’t want to let it go that far.”
It has been suggested the amount of physical and emotional energy the players are expending to turn around situations may eventually count against them.
But Wijnaldum believes it has become so ingrained in them now that they can push past the pain in search of victory.
“It’s hard, really hard. You have to go until the end, and you have to go even when you don’t physically see a positive outcome,” he added.
“Especially at the end of the games, you just keep going because you think you can.
“Your body is tired and so you battle with your body like ‘no, we have to go, we have to go on’.
“It’s really hard, but in the end you enjoy it more if you win that way than if it is easy.”
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