This weekend's game between Manchester United and Liverpool has a bit of a strange feel about it. While the two clubs could hardly have more contrasting fortunes at the minute, Liverpool supporters are not sure what to think heading into Sunday.
The league leaders have an incredibly poor record at Old Trafford, having failed to win their since 2014. In fact, Klopp only has one league win over United since his arrival at Anfield, the 3-1 victory last season. For this reason many are unsure how this game will play out.
If you were to make judgements based solely on form, there would only be one winner. However, we all know that form can often be disregarded for fixtures such as this one.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been rather coy in the buildup, trying not to give too much away. He has sent mixed messages about the fitness of some key players and Jurgen Klopp reckons he could be playing some mind games.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference this afternoon, he said that he would not be surprised were both David de Gea and Paul Pogba deemed fit to play on Sunday.
Klopp 🗣 "Yesterday, Pogba/De Gea there is 'no chance', today it is 'maybe', tomorrow it is 'a chance'!"#beINPL #LFC #MUFC #MUNLIV pic.twitter.com/h3GIBLXCPg
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS_EN) October 18, 2019
I'm 100 per cent aware of the strengths of Manchester United. I am expecting their strongest possible line-up.
Four days ago Ole said there was no chance for De Gea and Pogba. Today it’s a maybe. Tomorrow it’s 100 per cent. Martial will be back, all that stuff. That's how all these games are played...
The less your opponent manager knows about you the better.
In four years in England it is still really strange for me about not knowing whether a player is fit or not. In Germany we allow the press to watch training four or five times a week!
Liverpool are set to recall Alisson Becker to the team after his long absence, while Joel Matip should also return after he missed the win over Leicester City. Mo Salah has also recovered after being labelled a doubt earlier in the week.
Klopp said all three are doing well, but no decision around their inclusion has been made as of yet.
Better – how good, we have to see, that’s the truth,
There are two more sessions to come from this afternoon and we have to see. Then we’ll make decisions, that’s how it is. Nothing is fixed.
The players on international duty all came back healthy, which is very, very important.
So we now had three or four days with the full squad to prepare it, which is a little bit comfortable at least.
