Vincent Kompany believes Liverpool are approaching the same levels of their title-winning pomp under Jurgen Klopp after they defeated his Burnley side.
Goals at either end of the game from Darwin Nunez and substitute Diogo Jota earned the Reds a 2-0 win at Turf Moor on Tuesday evening.
The victory was sufficient to move Liverpool back to the Premier League summit, with Arsenal not in action until they entertain West Ham United on Thursday night.
As a player, Kompany was part of the Manchester City side that tussled with the Reds for several years in memorable title battles.
And asked about Klopp’s side, the Burnley boss said: “It’s a top team, there’s no doubt. You play against the top sides and what’s really apparent especially in this league is that every team at the top has a different style and different idea behind it, different strengths.
“Liverpool have different strengths to Tottenham, Arsenal and City. To be top in Premier League you have to have top players.
“Funny thing, I was kind of thinking when I played against probably one of the greatest sides they’ve had in recent history and, look, the quality only future will tell but in terms of intensity they are getting back to the levels I know when I faced against them as a player.”
Liverpool had two goals controversially disallowed to give Burnley hope of earning a point until Jota’s late strike.
And Kompany said: “We played against a top side, I don’t think the scenario of the game was too bad in terms of being in the game, and then having a late push to get a result. We had our moments, we can’t prevent them from having a moment because they are a top side, but we had our moments as well.
“The team fights, the team is alive, the team is entertaining, it just lacks that little bit of final touch at the moment to reward ourselves. I keep saying I see them working every single day and I have no doubt they will make that step.”
Kompany added: “It was a game where if you look at how dominant Liverpool were in the first half it’ll tell you one side of the half but I felt we had big, big transition opportunities.
“I felt that there in the first half. But we weren’t as solid as we needed to be to benefit from that. The second half we were a little bit more solid and had more moments because of it and looked more dangerous.”
