Jurgen Klopp has called on his Liverpool players to disprove the suggestion that they are the perfect next opponent for struggling Manchester United.
The Reds travel to Old Trafford 15 points ahead of their arch-rivals in the Premier League and looking to extend a perfect start to the season that has thus far featured eight wins from eight.
The gap between the teams has led to suggestions that Sunday’s game could provide a springboard for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men to turn their fortunes around.
But Klopp cannot imagine any opponent relishing the prospect of taking on his side.
He said: “They are ready, they wait for us. They said we are the perfect opponent now - you can see it like this, but you don’t have to.
“I don’t think there are a lot of teams who would love to play against us.
“In the moment, it looks like Manchester United is the only one who wants to play us and we have to make sure that that is a misunderstanding.”
Liverpool have never been so strongly fancied for three points going into a game at Old Trafford in the Premier League era.
But Klopp isn’t going to let that favourites tag distract his players from postponing any United recovery until after a fixture he considers ‘a banana skin’.
He added: “This is game is so easy; not the game against United, the game everybody else around plays. So easy.
“I saw on Sky when you made a combined line-up and you had 11 players of Liverpool in - that’s like a joke, building a banana skin.
“That’s what everybody wants to see. The world at the moment is a circus and we are in the centre. A couple of people want us to win, a couple of people want us to lose. I’m not influenced by it, to be honest.
“We have to be very, very lively. We have to be emotional as much as allowed, we have to be fluent, we have to be very clear in a lot of moments, and we have to respect their strength. That’s what we do.
“This is a really good football team in a situation that they don’t like so they want to change it. We have to make sure that, if they want to change it, they have to wait until a week later.”
United’s preparations have been disrupted by a number of injuries to their star men, but Klopp is sceptical over suggestions the hosts will be severely understrength.
He continued: “I’m 100 per cent aware of the strength of Manchester United, I expect their best possible line-up.
“Four days ago, they would have said 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 these games are played. No problem with that, but at the end, we are experienced enough to judge all the things in the right way.”
Predict the results for gameweek 9 in the Premier League
