Klopp ready for Liverpool’s ‘biggest game’ against Manchester United

History and most of English football tend to see the past 50 years as a battle for supremacy between Liverpool and Manchester United. The great north-west rivalry provided the narrative arc even before Sir Alex Ferguson made his famous comment about knocking the country’s most successful team off their perch, though if the pendulum is swinging back towards Merseyside this season it might just be because Jürgen Klopp is an outsider to all that.

“I used to enjoy watching English football when I was working in Germany but I was busy with my job most of the time,” the Liverpool manager says. “Then when I came here I only thought about my team, I didn’t give much thought to my opponents. I knew about Chelsea, because they had won the Champions League and the Europa League.

“Leicester winning the title was surprising to me, though it didn’t take me too long to realise how good they were. Then there was Manchester City, who I knew from playing them in the Champions League. I never spent any time thinking about Manchester United and certainly not in the sense that if we win against them we might win the league. It was not like that. To be honest, when I first came to Liverpool I was not even thinking about winning the league.”

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That has changed enormously in just over four years, with Liverpool prevented from winning the Premier League last year by an exceptional City side.

This season, City have fallen away to an extent and United are the only side to take points off Liverpool, even though they are still some way from breaking into the top four.

Asked whether he had been expecting more of a title challenge from Old Trafford in his four years in England, Klopp replies with a simple negative. “Until recently we ourselves have not been capable of a title challenge, so why would I be bothered about anyone else?”

What Klopp does know is that Liverpool v United is a derby, one of several his side have to negotiate over the course of a season. Most teams have one derby, one fixture that is automatically the biggest date on the calendar, though by Klopp’s reckoning Liverpool have three. “First, I am told Liverpool v Manchester United is the biggest game of the season and having experienced a few I can accept that,” he says.

“Then there is Everton, which is just the same. It doesn’t matter about the league table, that’s a big game and a tough one. But then there’s Manchester City too, they have become our main title rivals. It’s like we have more enemies than anyone else.”

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Klopp does not mean enemies in the literal sense, but he is probably right in suggesting that if you have to get psyched up for half a dozen derby-type atmospheres per season it represents quite a high proportion of your fixture list. “We have to learn how we want to play in these games,” he says. “We always build it up as Liverpool v United, but the last couple of times we didn’t play as well as we wanted to. We struggled against Everton too. They are always tight games.

“Back in the old days you would be able to tell these were special fixtures because everyone flew at each other and tried to kick the other side off the pitch. I don’t want to see that and you can’t do it now anyway. We understand being aggressive in a completely different way to our grandfathers.

“We want to win the game, we don’t want to win one little battle here or there. You have to find solutions on the pitch and for that you need a clear mindset.”

Ole Gunnar Solskjær believes his side are improving in confidence and awareness, and Klopp, too, thinks Sunday’s opponents could be a force in the second part of the season. “I think United will probably qualify for the Champions League,” he says. “If I was five points off that target I would be trying 100%. They have a really good team, the transfer window is still open and maybe they can bring in a couple of players who suit Ole’s style of play, that is possible. They can beat us but they can only play as well as we let them play.

“We didn’t play as well as we could have in Manchester, but we can think about that for next season. Right now we only need to think how we do it here at Anfield. It’s our stadium, our place, and we have to make sure everybody knows that before the first whistle.

“We have to make sure we are at our best. If we are, then it’s really difficult for anyone else.”