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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Samuel Meade

Jurgen Klopp would disagree with Sir Alex Ferguson's approach to Romelu Lukaku

Jurgen Klopp and Sir Alex Ferguson would take very different approaches to stopping Romelu Lukaku.

The Liverpool boss has the task of keeping the Belgian forward quiet on Saturday evening when Chelsea head to Anfield.

Both teams have won their opening two Premier League games are have their eyes on the Premier League trophy.

Thomas Tuchel's men have been bolstered by Lukaku's arrival with a lack of goals a problem for them last term.

The £97.5m signing scored 15 minutes into his debut last weekend and will now come up against Virgil van Dijk.

But whilst people have focused on the battle between the striker and the centre-half Klopp has been keen to keep tabs on Chelsea's other threats.

Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool will need to keep Romelu Lukaku quiet at Anfield (PA)

He said: "Of course you can make whichever headline you want to write about Romelu and Virgil – he will show up around the other centre-half as well, I guess, and players! If you are only focused on Romelu, Kai (Havertz) and Mason (Mount) will punish you."

Chelsea put in a dominant team performance as they breezed past Arsenal last weekend.

Reece James also got himself on the score sheet but Gary Neville felt as if the Gunners paid too much attention to the Blues' playmakers which allowed Lukaku to thrive.

He recalled Ferguson's insturctions during his Manchester United days.

The Scot would task his defence with focusing on the danger - the striker - whom he labelled as the "priority".

"Arsenal were thinking about Arsenal’s No.10s - of course they’re a threat, [Mason] Mount and [Kai] Havertz - but you’ve got to deal with the priority. The priority is Lukaku," explained Neville.

"Sir Alex in his team talks would attend to the danger.

"And you can argue that when you’re playing against a good team, there are lots of dangers, but if you’re playing against Arsenal - Pires, Henry, Cole.

"Now that’s not saying that Ray Parlour might do something on that right-hand side. But attend to this [Lukaku] and you’ve got a great chance of winning the match."

Klopp will hope the Anfield crowd can help his side see off the Blues, who look the real deal thus far.

Tuchel is looking to add domestic honours to the European prizes he has already won and the Reds boss was keen to praise the west Londoners.

He added: "What Thomas Tuchel did there is really good. So it means that the way they build up, the way they play, it's a clear structure but very flexible.

"They have most of the time the wing-backs, or cover with the wing-backs, in the half spaces, like this double 10, double six, very flexible players.

"And now a proper target player up front. I think last year people very often spoke about that Chelsea played really well but didn't finish the situations off often enough, and it was obviously the idea behind the signing of Romelu, so smart business."

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