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Jurgen Klopp explains how being humiliated 7-0 in March 2023 will help Man Utd on Anfield return.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp suggests that the memory of a 7-0 defeat from last season will serve as motivation for Manchester United as they gear up for a return to Anfield. Despite their current struggles, the Red Devils are set to visit Merseyside on Sunday, haunted by the painful recollection of a resounding loss to their arch-rivals in March. Klopp believes that this humbling experience will contribute to sharpening the focus within the United squad, as they are determined to avoid a repeat of such a dismal performance.
Klopp has said of the impact a crushing 7-0 win from nine months ago will have on events in the present: “The 7-0 we knew on the day was a freakish result that happens once in life pretty much. And if it helps anybody for the next game, it’s the team who lost 7-0 and not the team who won 7-0, that’s another thing. If you take it all out of consideration then we just play a football game against the rival, the historical rival, of Liverpool FC, at home at Anfield. That itself must make it a special game and that’s what I want to see from us: a special game. Really understand the situation and give your all – that’s all I need.”
Liverpool head into their meeting with United sat at the top of the Premier League table, with Klopp saying when asked if his class of 2023-24 have shown their true capabilities yet: “Oh yes, in moments definitely. What is the real capability? Is it what you can do in the moment? Or is it what you can do in three or four years of working together? For what we can do in the moment, we saw it in moments. And we saw the problems as well.
That’s clear when you have a new group together, and it is a new group: new players and different roles for other players, that’s how it is. It’s always clear that it needs time to find some stability, that’s what we lacked in moments. That’s the truth. But in the end so far it worked out somehow and we have to make sure that we keep improving, even in the most difficult moments. We were not as a group in this tough period [yet]. We never had a December together, let me say it like that, and a December in English football is the toughest month ever.
“And that’s where we now have to show how far we are with that. I know when in early December you are top of the table people start thinking about different things; we obviously don’t. I’m at least too long in the business that it would mean anything to me. It’s better than being 18th or 20th but it’s still just a position for the moment and we have to keep working extremely hard and that is so difficult when you don’t have real time for recovery, but you have to do it anyway.”
Liverpool had the luxury of being able to rest and rotate for their midweek Europa League match against Union Saint-Gilloise, while United had to deal with injuries and suspensions ahead of another crucial English top-flight match. Andy Robertson, Joel Matip, Diogo Jota, and Alexis Mac Allister are among the Reds’ current absences.