Warnock hopes to avoid thrashing by Reds
Cardiff City manager Neil Warnock fears being “battered” as the Welsh side aim to boost their Premier League survival hopes when they host title contenders Liverpool today.
Tuesday’s 2-0 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion gave 18th-placed Cardiff a lift in their relegation battle as they are now just two points adrift of the safety zone.
However, Cardiff’s record against the top six teams is a cause for concern and they have lost all 10 of their matches this season.
“It’s going to be a great day; I don’t want it to be a lovely occasion but we still get battered,” Warnock told reporters.
“We’ve just got to try and give a good account of ourselves for the fans that are going because it’s a sell-out — and it probably could’ve sold out twice more.”
Cardiff have conceded five goals to both Manchester City and Manchester United at home, as well as three each against Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal.
Liverpool arrive in the Welsh capital on an eight-match winning run in all competitions, and Warnock said it was crucial to stay solid defensively if they were to avoid another heavy defeat.
“I don’t like my teams losing concentration like that,” he added. “We’ve still got a massive job to do. You’d still want to be in (17th-placed) Brighton’s shoes.
“We’re just glad that with four games to go we’re still surprising people. I like it when we surprise people.”
Meanwhile, Jurgen Klopp believes Liverpool have never been better placed to fulfil his first-day promise, but warned they must still work to be the complete team.
When Klopp was unveiled as Brendan Rodgers’ successor in October 2015, he said: “If we sit here in four years, I think we win one title,” and joked he would end up in Switzerland if that did not come true.
It has taken Liverpool three years to launch a proper assault for the Premier League and with four matches to play, they have put reigning champions City under pressure which nobody foresaw at the beginning of the campaign.
Liverpool, who are also in the Champions League semi-finals against Barcelona, have everything to gain in the next few weeks but, equally, one slip and they risk ending up with nothing.
It is an intense situation but one that Klopp believes is bringing the best from his players.
“People reminded me when I came here and signed a four-year contract that in four years we probably would have won something,” said Klopp, who renegotiated his contract in July 2016 so that it now expires in 2022.
“It didn’t happen yet. Look, both sides — the club and myself — have a wonderful commitment that we really try everything to make the club as successful as possible.
“How long it will take, I have no clue. The position we are now in I am really happy with.
“It is not the final position we want to be, but the awareness from outside of the club of where we are — second (consecutive) time in a Champions League semi-final — is really special.
“So many teams tried to get that this year again and it did not happen. You need luck in some moments. We needed it. Before Napoli (the final group stage game) who would have thought we would be in the semis again? It is not where we want to be at the end.
“We want to improve. Our problem is the other teams do not sleep and make good decisions as well.”
Klopp, meanwhile, voiced his dismay at the fact Liverpool’s fans are being charged £103 (RM553) for semi-final tickets in Barcelona.
Liverpool are subsidising the tickets by £27 by making Barcelona fans pay the same price for the return leg, but it has left a sour taste.
“As a club we thought about what we can do but, wow, that is really a big price,” said Klopp.