LONDON – Liverpool’s coach Jurgen Klopp insists that Manchester United’s critics are wrong to write them off ahead of Sunday’s showdown in the English Premier League at Anfield.
Erik ten Hag’s side have endured a wretched week — beaten 3-0 at home in the league by Bournemouth before crashing out of Europe after losing to Bayern Munich.
Premier League leaders Liverpool, who is 10 points clear of United, inflicted a humiliating 7-0 thrashing when the arch rivals last met on Merseyside in March, but Klopp believes that “freak” result won’t help the hosts this weekend.
The Reds sit top of the Premier League ahead of the meeting with their rivals at Anfield, having won each of their last three games in the division.
Klopp’s men delivered an historic result in this fixture in 2022-23 with a resounding 7-0 triumph, though the boss insists that and the teams’ current form have zero bearing on the next edition of one of world football’s biggest contests.
“I never like when the headlines are about United not being great before we play because it’s like, ‘Okay, then this is the game where they can put everything right’,” Klopp said.
“The 7-0 we knew on the day was a freakish result that happens once in life pretty much,” he said during his pre-match press conference according to liverpoolfc.
“And if it helps anybody for the next game, it’s the team who lost 7-0 and not the team who won 7-0, that’s another thing. If you take it all out of consideration then we just play a football game against the rival, the historical rival, of Liverpool FC, at home at Anfield.
“That itself must make it a special game and that’s what I want to see from us: a special game. Really understand the situation and give your all – that’s all I need.”
In two of the three top-flight victories that preceded the visit of United, Klopp’s team had to come from behind to secure the points.
They scored twice in two minutes late on to defeat Fulham 4-3 at Anfield and needed a 91st-minute winner from Harvey Elliott at Crystal Palace – either side of a 2-0 result versus Sheffield United.
Digging deep to find a way to win has been a theme of Liverpool’s season so far, with those recent comebacks following similar exhibitions of resolve and determination earlier in 2023-24.
Asked how that has strengthened the mentality of his new-look squad, Klopp said: “Yeah, it came rather from that [comeback victories].
“I knew at the beginning [of the season] we have a really good football team. We brought a really good few boys, and actually the boys who were here we all knew how good they can be. So that was obvious from pretty early.
“But what is that? Tell me one Premier League squad who is not good, that is just existing. Especially if you fight for the top four, they are all outstanding so that’s what you have to be.
“These experiences, we said it when it happened early, early in the season; we had a good pre-season, a long pre-season and we didn’t train once 10v11 and had to play it pretty much for the first five games all the time! We did that really well and yeah, that brings a group together obviously.
“That helps the process definitely if you get through it. If you don’t get through it, it’s the opposite actually. But we got through this and that was extremely helpful.
“It’s now a while ago, we know each other much better. It’s still new but we know each other much better and the steps we make I like. Will they always be big enough? I don’t know yet, we have to see that.
“But so far I can see development, and that’s actually what I need to understand where it could end up. But that’s not possible in the moment because of the things I said before.”
On whether this team has fully showed its true capabilities yet, Klopp said: “Oh yes, in moments definitely.
“What is the real capability? Is it what you can do in the moment? Or is it what you can do in three or four years of working together? For what we can do in the moment, we saw it in moments.
“And we saw the problems as well. That’s clear when you have a new group together, and it is a new group: new players and different roles for other players, that’s how it is. It’s always clear that it needs time to find some stability, that’s what we lacked in moments. That’s the truth.
“But in the end so far it worked out somehow and we have to make sure that we keep improving, even in the most difficult moments. We were not as a group in this tough period [yet]. We never had a December together, let me say it like that, and a December in English football is the toughest month ever. And that’s where we now have to show how far we are with that.
“I know when in early December you are top of the table people start thinking about different things; we obviously don’t. I’m at least too long in the business that it would mean anything to me.
“It’s better than being 18th or 20th but it’s still just a position for the moment and we have to keep working extremely hard and that is so difficult when you don’t have real time for recovery, but you have to do it anyway.”
Ten Hag hopes there is no repeat. He’s still without suspended captain Bruno Fernandes, Harry Maguire is out injured, but Luke Shaw and Marcus Rashford should be available.
“We take that (7-0) in our memory, but you have to also take the benefit from it and learn from it and Sunday we can prove that,” he said. “It was a bad experience, but it´s not similar – you start again.
“We will not ignore it, but we go there and we will be confident, and I know my players, to go there and be confident from the start to the end. We have to fight there, we have challenge there. We go to win there.”
