Jurgen Klopp has handed Newcastle United fans a back-handed compliment by insisting away days for Liverpool at St James' Park whipped up an atmosphere like "The World Cup final".
Klopp has been asked if teams are upping their game this season to try to claim a scalp against the champions after Liverpool's first title since 1990 this year.
The German boss experienced a 2-0 defeat in his first visit to St James' back in 2015 and has since been held to a draw in 2017 but won his last two matches on Tyneside, albeit the July meeting coming in front of an empty stadium.
When asked if Liverpool have a target on their backs this season, Klopp said: "It's probably a question to ask other teams now if they are desperate to beat us.
"Honestly though since I have been at Liverpool wherever we go everybody wants to beat us.
"Not a lot of other teams fancy the great history of this club.
"I remember once when we went to Newcastle when they were completely safe in the Premier League.
"We went there and it was like the World Cup final!
"I was like: 'Wow what's going on here'.
"The reason must be from the past because we didn't do anything wrong against Newcastle since I've been here."
