Jurgen Klopp will tell his Liverpool side that he believes they have all the quality needed to come out on top of Manchester City in their UEFA Champions League match tonight, ESPN reports.
Liverpool take on this evening in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League tie at Anfield, the stadium which hosted City’s only Premier League defeat this season.
Throughout his managerial career so far, Klopp has defeated a Pep Guardiola side on six occasions, more times than he has beaten any other manager.
During his press conference ahead of this evening’s tie, Klopp spoke of the confidence that the 4-3 Premier League victory over City back in January has given them:
We beat Man City two months ago but we knew before the game it is possible, if unbelievably difficult to do it, so now we know again it is possible and difficult to do it again.
If you have a home game hoping for a clean sheet against Man City does not make much sense. If you have to defend against them 95 minutes, 100 percent they will have a shot on target.
We have to be 100 percent better in all parts, offensively and defensively. We cannot avoid everything. But with our skills, we can cause them problems and they have the same chance so that makes the game interesting.
Not only is Klopp preparing his Liverpool side for tonight’s home fixture, he has also already been looking ahead to next week’s second leg match.
Klopp would have liked his Liverpool side to have been able to train on the Etihad Stadium pitch the night before the game and then hold a closed session on the Tuesday morning, before the match in the evening.
However, during his press conference, Klopp spoke of the difficulties the club have had trying to put this plan into action and revealed that his Liverpool squad may have to remain in Merseyside until the day of the game:
We would’ve liked to have trained next week ahead of the away game as well but we didn’t get a pitch for the next morning because no Manchester club could give us a pitch for the next morning.
