James Milner has praised Liverpool January signing Cody Gakpo as he calls for a 'fighting performance' against Wolves.
The Reds return to Premier League action on Saturday looking to reduce the gap between themselves and the top four. Brighton & Hove Albion made it two wins in as many weeks in the FA Cup as they dumped the holders out via a stoppage-time winner.
Jurgen Klopp's side are yet to pick up a league win since the turn of the year and travel to Molineux on Saturday looking for a confidence-boosting win with the importance of piecing together a winning run mounting.
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Gakpo was unveiled as a Liverpool player in the opening stages of the January transfer window and was the only incoming throughout the month. He has started his last four matches for the Reds - failing to open his account on Merseyside yet.
However, Milner has spotted positive signs from the 23-year-old's start to life in the Premier League, he told the official Liverpool website. "You see people like Stefan coming into the team and doing very well, and it's important we protect those guys and make sure people like him keep doing what they're doing.
"It's important we keep that positivity. It's easy to be very down and look at all the negatives when you aren't getting results you want, but it's important to highlight things that are good as well.
"At Brighton, I thought Cody was outstanding. He's obviously desperate to get on the scoresheet, but I thought his performance in the game was outstanding.
"It's important that doesn't get lost because, if you're not acknowledging the good things you're doing, it's going to be hard to get the momentum and the confidence to get on a roll."
Despite their precarious position in the Premier League, Julen Lopetegui's side showed why they are no pushovers during the FA Cup encounter with Wolves last month. The meeting finished 2-2 before Harvey Elliott's long-range strike settled the replay.
The Midlands side are outside of the bottom three on goal difference, sitting level on points with Bournemouth. Although the focus is on Liverpool as they look to fire on all cylinders.
"It's down to us put in a good performance, a fighting performance," Milner rallied. "Wolves will give us a tough test.
"We've experienced that pretty recently, it's never an easy place to play. It's a good atmosphere to play in and the fans get behind their team.
"Hopefully we can play well and create lots of chances. But sometimes, when things aren't going quite so well, the best performances are when you dig in, keep a clean sheet and get an ugly away win. That can give you so much.
"It's at times like this where we need the team spirit we've built over the past few years. The togetherness is still there and there's never any pointing fingers [within the squad]. It's about what we can do together and that’s how we’ve won trophies and been successful as a team.
"We will go through hard times as a team. There's disappointment, obviously. The fans will be disappointed as well as people around the club. But we said it when we were successful and it's the same now – nobody puts more pressure on us than ourselves.
“We need to be better in a lot of areas, and we’ll keep pushing to do that. We know this squad is capable of going on big runs and making something of this season. We need to do that by sticking together and working hard."
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