Fortune will favour brave
Gideon IT was fleeting, lasting just nine minutes before City regained the power in their legs and the clarity of vision and thought.
But it was enough to have made a lasting impression on Jurgen Klopp, who yesterday insisted reconnecting with the feeling of scoring three goals in nine minutes at Anfield in January will be the key to winning this Champions League quarter-final tie.
Of all the words used by Liverpool manager Klopp as he talked through the most eagerly anticipated match of the season, bravery was the one which caught the ear more than any other.
“If you’re brave, if you are ready to make mistakes,” he said. “If you are ready to enjoy the work and your attitude is at the highest level, if your character is at the highest level, then you have a chance.
“That is the only thing I need. Sitting back is not a solution against Manchester City. That is how it is.”
After a 5-0 win for City at the Etihad in September, skewed by the sending off of Sadio Mane when Pep Guardiola’s side were leading 1-0, and the 4-3 thriller at Anfield in January, won by Liverpool after their nineminute blitz, a goalless stalemate looks unlikely.
Certainly Klopp’s policy has never been to park the bus when it can be driven along at breakneck speed, and he indicated yesterday that he had no intention of grinding out a result to take to the Etihad next Tuesday.
“It’s very difficult to defend against City and all credit to them for that but we are difficult to defend against too,” he said.
“We are different teams but in some moments it is exactly the same – give us the chance to play one pass and it is very difficult to stop the next one. We either miss or we score. We
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are in a good way and we like the situation. Everything we do with the ball can cause City problems.
“If they give us opportunities, then it makes it about who copes and who deals with the little things that happen in the game – like losing an
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easy challenge or a ball through the legs when everyone is watching.”
Klopp will take confidence for his front-foot approach from previous meetings with Guardiola in both Germany and England, for which his head-tohead record shows six wins and a draw in 12 meetings. Tellingly, for those banking on entertainment, there have been 37 goals at more than three per game.
The German can also take heart from the fact that City have not won at Anfield in 18 attempts stretching back to May 2003, for all he insisted such historical pointers hold little interest for him.
Klopp was much more concerned that Emre Can had failed to recover from a back injury – his industry in midfield from that January clash will be missed – and that he will be without Adam Lallana too after the England international’s latest setback.
In addition, injuries to Joe Gomez, Joel Matip, who is out for the season, and Ragnar Klavan leave him with just two fit centre-halves, for all that Virgil van Dijk and Dejan Lovren are his first-choice pairing.
“Are there any centre-halves in the room?” he said yesterday with a smile.
It is of course to the front men that Liverpool fans will pin their hopes and to Mohamed Salah, who has scored in every home fixture this year with the exception of the Champions League second leg against Porto, when he came on as a 74th-minute substitute.
Aymeric Laporte, a centrehalf by trade, looks set to be charged with keeping Salah quiet and will have his hands full.
As will Trent AlexanderArnold, with City’s Leroy Sane on the opposite flank.
Such mouth-watering individual match-ups make tonight’s match a must watch and a game that could be sold out three times over.
“I know the atmosphere will be brilliant before we start the game,” said Klopp. “But then we have got a big part in it. Everyone is expecting a lot from us. It will be a tight game, a close game.
“If we win, it would be fantastic and that is the expectation. But I am sure everything will be prepared for a classic atmosphere. And if we deliver, it will be outstanding.”