LIVERPOOL EVERTON
JURGEN KLOPP says there will be no revenge in this evening’s Merseyside derby for the Jordan Pickford challenge that ended Virgil van Dijk’s season – despite strong emotions running through his team. But Liverpool manager Klopp, left, did confess that his players “are all human beings” and he is glad there has been a long gap between the showdowns with Everton. Van Djik had his season ruined when
the sides met at Goodison Park in October after a challenge from Everton goalkeeper Pickford left him with anterior cruciate ligament damage in his right knee.
“A week, two, three weeks later when we got the diagnosis it was good that we didn’t play Everton immediately again, let me say it like this,” said Klopp, diplomatically.
“We are all human beings and of course it was not nice but now it is long gone.
“Nothing will be carried over. We just don’t think about that any more.
“But it is still a derby and that is enough to be motivated on the absolutely highest level and trying to play the best possible football you can play.” Klopp claimed after the derby at Goodison that Pickford should have been sent off.
Everton striker Richarlison was dismissed for another bad challenge on Thiago, which kept the midfielder out for almost three months.
When asked if he will look back on that game as the turning point in Liverpool’s season, Klopp said: “I don’t know what I will think back when the season is over, to be honest.
“I hope I will think of something nicer than this. It was an important day, for sure.”
He insisted, though, that his side must now channel their emotions – however strong – in the right way to gain revenge against the old enemy.
A win for Everton will draw them level on points with the champions in sixth in the Premier League.
Klopp said: “We play the way we play. It is very emotional but we always are emotional.
“What the other team does, I have no influence. Nothing to say about that.
“We are prepared for a football game – a derby – like we always are.
“Nobody can ever say this team was not ready for derbies from an attitude point of view, or from an understanding point of view.”
Klopp has Naby Keita, above, back while Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti should be able to call on Allan and Dominic Calvert-Lewin but Yerry Mina is out.