Jurgen Klopp believes Xherdan Shaqiri is starting to fulfil his rich potential at Liverpool as he insisted: “Nobody knows how good he can be.”

The Reds boss says the Swiss attacker has given Liverpool “something different” since he arrived for a bargain fee of £12.85million from Stoke City in July.

Shaqiri lit up Wednesday's 4-0 thrashing of Red Star Belgrade at Anfield – his first Champions League start for six years.

Klopp had watched his rollercoaster career with interest since he joined Bayern Munich from Basel at the age of 20.

After falling out of favour at the Bundesliga outfit, a short stint with Inter Milan followed before he spent three years at Stoke. Now he's back with a bang at the highest level.

“I don't think anybody has an idea in the moment how good Shaq can be,” Klopp said.

(Image: Michael Regan/Getty Images)

“It's not a criticism, it's just how it is. I knew him when he was at Bayern and he was already an outstanding talent.

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“He had a good first year, second year he wasn't that good, but that can happen. Then he left. You can disappear a bit. Inter Milan and then Stoke.

“Thank God, he didn't disappear. He always had his moments.”

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Klopp revealed how a montage of Shaqiri in action left all of Liverpool's recruitment staff in no doubt that triggering his release clause after relegation with the Potters was a no-brainer.

“When I asked for us to cut a few scenes of Shaqiri, nobody said 'come on, Shaqiri? Really?',” he said.

“When we cut them together it was really impressive with how decisive he was in these situations. Even when he didn't score, he stayed in games.

“Signing him was a logical thing to do. He's still not the finished article.

“He still has a lot of space for improvement and that's really good. He gives us something different.

“So far we haven't really used his set-pieces but they are outstanding. Obviously, we don't get fouled there but at 0-0 you want someone to go down somehow around there only for him! That's another plus. It will be good.”

Shaqiri's attitude and work rate were questioned by some when Liverpool signed him, but he has bought into what's expected of him by Klopp.

(Image: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

That was epitomised by the sight of him tracking back and winning possession before creating the Reds' first goal against Red Star.

“That was probably the first counter-press situation of Shaq's life!” Klopp joked.

“I don't want to make him a defender but you have to do a job. It's nice to see that he's willing to do it 100%.

“In that situation he wasn't the logical player to disturb the opponent as he was chasing from behind. That's so new for him that he still has a job to do even when he's kind of 10 yards away and there are other team-mates near him.

“He was the surprise because their player saw Fabinho but he had no clue where Shaq was.

“Yes, I love it, I really love it. He can hang that goal wherever he wants - maybe on his wall!”

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Klopp believes the thumping win over Red Star was a major step forward for his side as they rediscovered some attacking fluency.

It was the first time in six matches that Liverpool had scored more than once in a game.

“It was really good - based on really good organisation. We scored three goals from counter-pressing situations,” he added.

“All the good things we did - playing in behind, chipping through balls, it was counter-pressing that got us goals.

“The first goal, Shaq got the ball back, passed it, wonderful goal. We filled the box which was also different to other games.

“Second one, we won it back, Gini (Wijnaldum) chipped it to Shaq, ball in and then 'bam'.

(Image: Richard Sellers/PA Wire)

“The fourth one for sure was a counter-press situation with Gini in front of the defender and passing the ball into the box.

“In all our good games it was like this. City last season, (Alex) Oxlade-Chamberlain's goal, an unbelievable shot, but how we won the ball back before that made all the difference. It gave us the space to use.

“It was a really good performance against Red Star. Before the game I said how difficult it could be. In the game it didn't look that difficult but we will see in the game in Belgrade how good they can be. They weren't bad the other night, it was just that we were good.

“I was really happy with that game and the way we played, the calmness we had. The first 20 minutes were pretty much my fault, it was wild, I wanted to stretch the formation and play the balls in behind.

“The timing wasn't good but then we calmed the game down and played football. In the end it was the perfect game.”

Liverpool go into Saturday's Premier League clash against struggling Cardiff City at Anfield with momentum.

Neil Warnock has described the challenge facing his newly promoted side as “virtually impossible”.

With the Reds unbeaten at home in the league since April 2017, the Anfield fear factor has been well and truly restored.

"It's normal that other teams have respect for what your team has done in the last few weeks and months, especially at Anfield. Look at the record, it is quite good," Klopp said.

"But on the other side this is just a game. You say 'they're unbeatable' so 'try it, do it'.

"Each challenge we win is a little victory. The next challenge we win, it's a victory. Celebrate a challenge like a goal and go to the next one.

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"I was manager of a team at Mainz that was the opposite of the favourite for 95% of the games. You know the other teams are better but we still tried everything to beat them.

"We had a draw at Dortmund and nobody expected that. After the game they said 'congratulations on your point'. I said 'congratulations to you' because they got a point as well, we should have had all three.

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"It's all about the mindset and attitude. No matter how big their respect is for us, it must still feel much more difficult and complicated in a game against us.

"I don't talk about atmosphere because I like to talk about it. I think I have to remind people that these are the days where we really need atmosphere.

"There are other games where it's clear it will be outstanding - like City, like Roma last season. In these games we can still improve it to make it a really special occasion - that's what we need to do."