Jurgen Klopp admits he is wary of facing a wounded Manchester United as Liverpool prepare to travel to Old Trafford.
The fierce rivals meet on Monday night with both teams having endured a disappointing start to the Premier League campaign. Liverpool have opened the season with consecutive draws, though their opponents are rooted to the bottom of the division after losses to Brighton and Brentford.
Klopp’s team will begin as favourites and won 9-0 on aggregate across the two meetings last season, including a 5-0 win at Old Trafford that saw Mohamed Salah score a hat-trick.
However, the German insists past results count for nothing ahead of the latest showdown between England’s most successful sides.
“I couldn’t be less interested in results from last year, they are different games and different situations,” said Klopp at his pre-match press conference.
“This is completely different and that’s it.”
United suffered a humiliating 4-0 defeat at Brentford last weekend, conceding four goals inside the first 35 minutes of a Premier League game for the first time.
Klopp admits he is unsure whether the Red Devils will ring the changes after that result and discussed the difficulty in preparing to face Erik ten Hag’s struggling side.
“United can change nothing or everything, so we don’t know, it is really tricky preparation-wise, but it’s early in the season and we don’t have a lot of info anyway.
“It’s tough but it’s fine. United away will never be easy so we try to do our absolute best.”
🗣 "I listened to Gabby Agbonlahor, he lost against us 6-0 in my first year, I couldn't remember him as a mentality monster on the pitch."
Jurgen Klopp reveals he was close to calling in to @talkSPORT after listening to the post-match reaction to Man United's loss to Brentford pic.twitter.com/zNlfB6UXsV
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) August 19, 2022
Klopp was asked on whether it is more difficult facing a wounded United side and conceded he is expecting a reaction from the Red Devils at Old Trafford.
“Of course. I would prefer to play them after they won 5-0, definitely, but that’s how it is,” he said.
“We drew two games, so is it better to play us in a situation like this? I don’t know. We have to deal with all the situations in the game and at this moment nobody knows what will happen.
“The whole world will watch it, it’s on Monday so let’s see how these heavyweights deal with the situation.”
The Liverpool manager discussed the early reign of opposite number Ten Hag, who has become the first Manchester United manager in 101 years to lose both of his first two fixtures in charge.
Klopp believes his own lack of a transfer window after arriving at Anfield provided him with more patience and says Ten Hag faces a difficult rebuild at United.
“I think for me it was easier because I didn’t come at the start of the season and didn’t have a transfer window.
“In England, people tend to say ‘it’s not his team’ but I actually thought from day one it was my team, so I felt responsible for all the performances.
“Now you can’t really compare it, they are different times. My arrival was seven years ago. It’s a long time in football, a lot of things have changed.
“It’s not easy, especially when you have to rebuild.”
