Newcastle United have a brilliant opportunity to derail Liverpool’s lofty aspirations when Jurgen Klopp brings his side to St James’ Park on Saturday. The Reds, having won the Carabao Cup, are still fighting to win the Premier League as well as the FA Cup and Champions League.
Should they be successful in all three remaining competitions, they would become the first English team to complete the quadruple but they still have plenty of work to do, especially in the league. They trail Manchester City by one point heading into the 34th game of the season and would go ahead of them, at least momentarily, with victory on Tyneside.
Pep Guardiola’s side would then have to react in their 5:30pm kick-off away at Leeds who are in the midst of a relegation battle. Everyone involved with Man City will be desperate for Eddie Howe’s side to do them a favour and, as one of the form sides in Europe, the Magpies have a chance of disrupting Liverpool’s rhythm.
Read more: Everything Newcastle boss Eddie Howe said on Liverpool fixture and facing Jurgen Klopp
However, in his pre-match press conference, Klopp issued something of a rallying cry to his players. He said: "This is no threat, but this is only the start. We really go for it now.
"We can't wait 10 years to make memories. We have to do it now. We have to enjoy the journey. We don't know if we will win anything. But at the moment, we try to squeeze everything out of this season that is possible.
"The last two years were really hard because Corona dominated our lives, we thought it was over then 'the other guy' put is in trouble. So we have to cherish these moments."
Denting Liverpool’s quadruple ambitions will, of course, not be the main motivation for Howe and his players even though it will dominate the media agenda before, during and after the game. The main objective for United is to continue to build momentum to take into next season whilst measuring how far Howe has already been able to take his squad of players.
A strong performance, which would possibly bring a positive result, would show the Magpies boss that his side are able to mix further towards the top end of the table next term.
