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Despite the victory, Sunday's performance against QPR didn't have many positives for Liverpool, with serious problems at both ends of the pitch and a pile of question marks as the club prepare to face Real Madrid on Wednesday. One of the worst individual performances came from Dejan Lovren, who looked particularly shaky in the air and was bullied by Bobby Zamora all afternoon.
"It's the first time in my career that I'm unhappy after a win," was the centre half's honest reaction to his and Liverpool's performance. "We made it very difficult for ourselves, but the most important thing was the three points. We showed our character and sometimes these games happen. We had one minute to win the game and something unbelievable happened, but I'm not satisfied."
Successful teams will always end the season with a handful of victories from matches where they weren't at their best, but it's difficult to recall a Liverpool victory in recent years that seemed anything like as underserved as Sunday's. In Lovren's case, at least, there's the excuse of the player having picked up a knock while on international duty, meaning he may not have been fully fit against QPR.
No matter if he's fully fit, though, if he starts on Wednesday he will need to turn in a much, much better performance for Liverpool to have a chance against what might be the most dangerous attack in Europe. If he isn't, then partisan Anfield crowd or not, it's almost impossible to imagine a way Liverpool survives facing an attack of Christiano Ronaldo, James Rodriguez, Karim Benzema, and Toni Kroos.
"I think we can be better," he added. "Everyone can be better, and we need to show it in every game. We have unbelievable players in the team, and I'm sure against Real Madrid on Wednesday we will do much better. It's an honour to play in the Champions League, but I don't just want to be there and play, we want to win as well. We need to fight and try to win the game."
