Joe Allen says in-form Liverpool 'can only get better'

Joe Allen admits it took longer than expected for Liverpool to turn their season around but says a young Reds squad will only get better.

A dreadful start to the campaign saw last season’s Premier League runners-up slip to 10th in mid-December, following their exit from the Champions League at the group stage.

Since then they have taken 30 points from their 12 subsequent Premier League matches to move into contention for a Champions League spot.

The midfielder said: "Losing Luis Suarez in the summer (to Barcelona) and Daniel Sturridge being out (injured) for so long as well and the change we had, we always knew there'd be a little bit of a rocky patch but we didn't expect it to go on so long.

"We always knew we'd turn it around but we wondered how long it was going to take. It did take longer than we expected, I think.

"We put expectation on ourselves because we think we're good enough to go on runs like this.

"With the players we've got, and the confidence we're playing with, I think it's a case of 'long may it continue'.

"People forget sometimes that we're a pretty young team and squad. The beauty of that is that we will get better. We've shown that as the season has gone on.

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"And with this run of games we're going on, we're really looking forward to Monday night's game and we'll be setting our stall out to go there and pick up three points.

"We've grown massively and I think you can see the change in formation. We've taken to that really well and quickly, which is important.

"I think we seem to have that edge back, even if we're not playing the most flowing football or things aren't going 100 per cent to plan.

“We still look like we're going to get the result and I think that speaks volumes about how much everyone has taken things forward."