Liverpool vs Manchester United derby clash follows familiar narrative as Jurgen Klopp outlines keys to victory
Often hyped as the biggest fixture in English football, Liverpool’s meetings with Manchester United so rarely live up to their billing.
38 league titles, six European Cups, and 19 FA Cups mark these clubs out as giants of the country’s footballing landscape.
And yet games between them so often fail to sparkle in the same manner as their respective trophy cabinets.
It is a quirk that owes much to the fact that, throughout the history of this most famous of rivalries, its protagonists’ fortunes have seemed to work in inverse proportion to one another.
Liverpool’s spells of dominance have come at times of struggle at Manchester United and vice versa, meaning the two have seldom gone head-to-head for the biggest prizes.
That has certainly proven to be the case ahead of the teams’ latest clash, which will start with the league-leading Reds a whopping 27 points ahead of their fifth-placed arch-rivals.
It is a state of play that means Jurgen Klopp can anticipate United’s approach to Sunday’s fixture with some degree of certainty.
As he explained: “In the past, there were good times for Manchester United and good times for Liverpool, there was usually one clear favourite but both teams tried to win it.
"In the last years, the away games especially were strange from that point of view. I heard Ole was confronted with the fact that I said United only defended. I don’t know if I said that exactly, but probably it is true.
"It is strange when you play against a high, high-quality team – which United still is – and they play the way they play. That makes life really difficult.
"We had the same with Tottenham, after 70 minutes we had around 70 per cent possession. That’s not normal, how can you expect something like that?
"And on the other side, the counter-attacks are of the highest level in the world. For Tottenham and for sure Man United.
"I’m not saying they only counter-attack, but it’s clearly a thing they want to do. If people want to see that as criticism, I can’t change that. But it’s not, it’s just a description of the situation.
"If it’s an open game, play football. If there is space, there is space.”
So, how exactly will Liverpool prevent Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men from playing the game on their terms at Anfield?
United are the only team to deny the Reds all three points in the 21 league games they have played thus far this season, the sides having drawn 1-1 at Old Trafford in October.
But Klopp is keen for his players to show they have learned from that disappointment, and believes home advantage could be helpful in that regard.
He continued: “The majority of time, we face teams who are set up like this. We want to be dominant and we have to be dominant. And you have to protect these situations.
"You have to be as creative as possible, offensive football only works if you use the full size of the pitch in the opposition’s half, and that makes you pretty vulnerable when you lose the ball.
"You have to make sure you don’t lose the ball, or if you do then you win it back as quick as possible, or that you are protected in a certain way. You cannot only be focused on offensive things.
"We respect them a lot, they are not only a counter-attacking team. We can analyse them, they played build-up so how can we know exactly how they will set up.
"The difference between playing at Old Trafford and Anfield is massive, and we want to show that as well. The better the opponent, the more consistent you have to be, and this game asks us for perfection.
"If you lose the ball in the wrong moment, the train starts going! It’s up to us to make sure that will not happen.”
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