Klopp: It’s biggest match of our lives
Liverpool manager insists struggling United pose huge threat to his title chasers
JURGEN KLOPP has underlined the importance of beating Manchester United tonight as he described the three points as ‘the most important of our lives’.
Fresh from securing a place in next month’s FA Cup final, Liverpool can go top of the Premier League if they win at Anfield.
Ralf Rangnick, Klopp’s opposite number, was gloomy about his team’s prospects at the weekend, but the Liverpool boss is not falling into any traps.
He has warned that his side will need to produce a display as good as anything that has gone before if they want to keep the pressure on Manchester City.
Klopp said: ‘They want the three points we need. That’s that attitude we have to show. We have to be angry in a good way, greedy, all these kind of things, like you are if you have won nothing and it’s the most important three points in your life.
‘That’s the attitude we need for this game. We don’t face a team who has problems. We face Manchester United.’
Klopp is not the type to get involved in mind games. United might be a pale shadow of the club and team who set the standards for so long, and if they play as anaemically as they did on their last visit to Merseyside ten days ago — when losing 1-0 to Everton — Liverpool will not turn down the chance to squash them.
But this is a fixture that has given Liverpool headaches. United have had a grip on these meetings, having won more of them at Anfield in the Premier League era than Liverpool, 12 to ten.
Klopp has only lost once at Anfield to United — his first meeting in January 2016, when Wayne Rooney pounced — but there is always the potential for that to change and the implications of an away win would be enormous. It’s why the German was so deliberate in spelling out his message about the potential for peril.
‘If I go through the line-up, the goalkeeper is world class,’ Klopp said. ‘I’m not sure if Scott McTominay and Fred can play. It might be Paul Pogba and Nemanja Matic! If you let Pogba, he plays through you and behind you!
‘Then, up front, you can choose from Jadon Sancho, Bruno Fernandes, Anthony Elanga or Marcus Rashford. I’m not sure if Edinson Cavani will be ready — but that is what we have to prepare for.
‘If we let United do (what they want), they will cause us massive problems. We have to be in the right mood to fight for the three points.’
It is a far cry from how it was when the teams met at Old Trafford last October, when Mohamed Salah hit a hat-trick in a 5-0 win, extending his scoring streak to a tenth consecutive game.
The Egyptian is now on a goalless run from open play lasting nearly two months. Is Klopp worried about that? Not a bit of it.
‘It’s a completely normal spell Mo is going through,’ said Klopp. ‘We’ve spoken about all the physical demands he faced in the last few months. It’s only a question of time when he will score.’
Meanwhile, Rangnick warned that United will remain in the Premier League wilderness even longer unless they copy Liverpool’s recruitment blueprint.
United’s interim manager believes they could be turned round in two or three transfer windows. But he fears it will be like finding ‘a needle in a haystack’ if United do not sign the right players as part of an overhaul that will begin this summer. ‘It’s not rocket science,’ he said. ‘But to have the best possible wind, you need to know what your destination is. I don’t think a club like Manchester United can afford to take three or four years to achieve that.
‘It will take two or three windows if you know what you are looking for. If you don’t, it is a needle in a haystack.’
Rangnick insists his ‘underdogs’ will go for victory at Anfield as they battle Arsenal, Tottenham and West Ham for fourth place.
‘We definitely will try to get three points,’ he said. ‘We are still in the race for fourth, but we have to win almost every game.’
Fernandes is expected to play a full part tonight after escaping unhurt from a car crash on his way to training yesterday morning.