Jürgen Klopp: We have to use the emotion against Everton
Tonight's clash with Everton marks a maiden game at Goodison Park for Jürgen Klopp, but the Liverpool manager feels he already knows what to expect from this Merseyside derby.
The German’s first-hand experience of the fixture so far is limited to the comprehensive 4-0 victory his team achieved over their neighbours at Anfield back in April.
Klopp was watching on television the last time the Reds made the journey across Stanley Park, when the rivals played out a 1-1 draw days before his appointment as boss.
He also tuned in from afar as Ronald Koeman’s side recovered from an early deficit to beat Arsenal at home on Tuesday night, and noted the atmosphere generated in support of the Blues as they rallied.
One element of Liverpool’s job this evening will therefore be to negate the noise of the home crowd, according to Klopp, who wants his players to put the emotion of the occasion to their advantage.
Asked for his expectations, the manager told Premier League Productions: “Intensity.
“You need to keep your nerves, you need to be emotional. It sounds like a challenge and it is a challenge. You need to play at your best and you need to know about the motivation of the other team.
“Everybody always makes it bigger after the game than it is, especially if you win. If you win it then everything is good, but it causes you a lot of problems if you lose it.
“It’s not that you talk about it for five weeks if you win it but very often it’s like this if you lose it, so it’s pressure of course, but I like these situations.”
Klopp continued: “It’s not about ignoring the circumstances, it’s about using the circumstances.
“And we spoke a little bit about this in the last few weeks, about this kind of being angry but in a sports way angry. That’s really important in a game like this.
“In preparation for a game you don’t have to talk too much about motivation and things like this because if you respect your team and you know about the character of your team then it’s clear they are full of motivation.
“So it’s really more about doing the right thing in the right moment, even in a very emotional atmosphere. It’s good and we all love it.
“We all want a loud stadium, a really emotional crowd around and all that stuff, even though most of them will be on Everton’s side, but that’s no problem because it’s so loud it could be a target to cool them down a little bit with the way you play.
“The last game against Arsenal was a good example. In the first few minutes, Arsenal were really strong and it was not the best atmosphere but the moment the crowd saw them starting to strike back then it was a really good atmosphere.
“We watched the game in our hotel. It was good to see from a neutral perspective. But our job is to make Goodison Park as quiet as possible.”