Jurgen Klopp has dismissed suggestions that Manchester United arrive at Anfield on Sunday as the underdogs.
Liverpool host the league leaders less than a week after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side took top spot from them in Tuesday's 1-0 win at Burnley.
United are on a 15-game run without loss away from home, a streak that dates back to the 2-0 defeat at Anfield almost a year ago that left them trailing Liverpool by a massive 30 points.
Some 363 days later, United will re-visit Anfield three clear of the champions and aiming to end an unbeaten home record that started in April 2017.
Liverpool's 67-game stretch has made them favourites in the eyes of some, but Klopp has rejected the assertion that United head down the M62 as the lesser of the two sides on Sunday.
Klopp said: "I am five-and-a-half years or round about in England and United was never an underdog.
"They cannot be. It is just like it is. They have always had great teams, players, really good coaches, managers, all that stuff was always there.
"And now, they are top of the table, that is how it is. So they can never be an underdog.
"But we play at home and we don't see ourselves as an outsider or whatever just because they are now ahead of us. It is an open game, it was always an open game.
"Very often when we played United with different managers we had to be dominant in the game, especially when Jose Mourinho was there.
"So that is how it is. Now we will see exactly. Usually they change the system against us.
"I think now 10 times also with four at the back and against RB Leipzig, they still played with five at the back, maybe they will change back.
"These are all the things we have to think about, not who is the favourite, or who is the challenger or the outsider, or the top dog. It is just not important.
"It is Liverpool against United, that in itself is a massive game. Wherever I would be in the world and there is a television, I would watch it. Definitely This is the game."
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Klopp also hinted that Thiago Alcantara could be in line for his Anfield debut nearly four months after joining from Bayern Munich.
A two-and-half-month spell on the sidelines after the Merseyside derby in mid-October meant Thiago returned to the fold for the last three games, all of which have come away from Anfield.
Klopp, though, suggested that he was keen to unleash the two-time Champions League winner at home against the Red Devils.
"We will see," Klopp said. "The most important thing is he is fit, has trained, bam, all good.
"Now, what was it? He has played 90 and 45 minutes in the last two games. So we will see if he can play and which position he can play because we have options and all that stuff.
"But it is really good to have him around now because he is a really good guy and obviously an exceptional football player.
"Yes, it is like a new signing. I know that I said that to put the pressure off the situation a little bit when people said we should sign Thiago.
"But we have now and he is here. Let's hope it will stay like this for a long, long time."
