Liverpool on Thursday secured what turned out to be a routine win over Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester City, courtesy of a brace by Portuguese international Diogo Jota. However, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp believes that his side are still quite some distance away from league leaders Manchester City.

While the Reds started the game in dominant fashion, they initially had trouble breaking down Leicester’s defence. However, the hosts did not have to wait till half-time when Diogo Jota netted in 34th minute to give Liverpool the lead.

Although Mohamed Salah came close and Liverpool had several chances, the Reds did not bury the game till late into the second half, when Jota pounced on a pass by Joel Matip to secure a 2-0 win for Liverpool.

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The win put Liverpool nine points behind runaway Premier League leaders Manchester City, who have accumulated 60 points from 24 games.

Commenting on the possibility of a title race with Pep Guardiola‘s impeccable side, however, Klopp admitted that his team have “no chance” of catching City.

“I am not sure we’re in a position to get them on their toes, to be honest,” said the German in the post-match conference after the Leicester game.

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“Actually, we have no chance to catch them, but it doesn’t mean we won’t play the best possible season for us,” the 54-year-old added, clarifying that his team would do their best regardless of what City do.

“It was really important tonight for us to win because there’s not only Man City to catch or whatever, there are lots of teams behind us who want to get closer and that’s a very important task as well,” Klopp further said, highlighting the intense competition in the Premier League.

Commenting on Liverpool’s approach to Premier League matches, the German said, “First and foremost, we have to win our football games and this club is massive. Since I’m here, I can’t remember a game we lost and everyone said ‘yeah, we can lose that game’, so it’s always the same situation.”

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“There’s a game, we put on the shirts and we have to win it. It doesn’t work out all the time, but thankfully it’s happened a couple of times…I don’t think they [Manchester City] smell our breath already, but we just try to win football games,” Klopp concluded.

Runaway league leaders Manchester City travel to 18th-placed Norwich City on Saturday, and Pep Guardiola’s men are understandably the favourites to win it.

Liverpool, meanwhile, travel to Burnley on Sunday, but the bottom side in the Premier League are known for being dogged opponents, and the fixture could be a potentially tricky one for Klopp’s Reds.