Jürgen Klopp has little interest in what outsiders think about his Liverpool team, with the manager insisting the only opinions that matter can be found within the Anfield dressing room.

A start to the season characterised by a series of scintillating attacking displays has seen the Reds lose just one of their 14 games in all competitions and surge to the top of the Premier League.

An irresistible performance and 6-1 victory over Watford immediately before the international break led to opposing boss Walter Mazzarri hailing Liverpool as the most impressive side the Hornets have come up against in 2016-17.

Several opposition managers and players have spoken about Klopp’s men in similarly respectful terms this season - but while the German would rather be on the receiving end of praise than pity, he prefers to focus on the views of his own players and staff.

“Of course, it’s better that they think something like this, than they say ‘thank God it’s Liverpool at the weekend, so quite an easy game’,” Klopp told Goal.

“But in the end it’s not a big value for us, what other teams think about us - it’s good and it’s positive but not too important.

“The main thing is that we actually think about ourselves: ‘Yeah, we are quite a good team.’ We have big expectations on ourselves and I’m not pessimistic, I’m really optimistic, but I don’t like to make these positive assessments all the time and say ‘we are really good - my God, how good are we?’

“I know about the problems we could have in the future, and we need to stay in the race. It’s not about celebrating each time like ‘my God, that was so fantastic!’

“It’s a kind of sign and a kind of confidence we need to have that we celebrate it in the moment, then we accept this is normal - this is our quality and what we expect.”

Liverpool have plundered 40 goals in their 14 matches so far this season, with a division-high of 30 of those coming in the Premier League.

And Klopp believes his side are becoming accustomed to finding ways to be successful against the array of styles and systems they come up against in the English top flight.

“We knew even before we came here that this is Liverpool FC and that means a lot of teams play a specific kind of football against ‘big names’ so you need to create plans for these different games,” the manager added.

“The longer we have the ball, the less can happen against you. Then you lose it and you need to get it back, I thought it’s a good idea to get it back immediately because it makes life easier.

“That is why we think counter-pressing is really important, but it doesn’t work all the time, so then you have to defend in a different way.

“That’s how football works - you close one hole, unfortunately you open another one. It never ends, it never ends!

“I was never part of the perfect game - I never saw it. It’s always about handling the problems the game gives you in specific moments, and to try to prepare for them.

“The problem is there are a lot of good teams out there who want to win the games, to collect the points, to climb up the table and to fight for a specific position.

“That’s what we are working to do as well and along the way, you have so many different things to do, to play different teams with different types of plans.

“Nobody is born saying they’re a real competitor, you get it on the way as you grow up, and we want to be a real competitor together in the Liverpool shirt.”