Press conference'It's massive' - Jürgen Klopp previews Man United showdown

The Reds have collected 10 points from their last four Premier League matches and will seek to extend that positive run when they face their rivals this weekend.

It’s a fixture that always captures the world’s attention and one Klopp’s men are determined to come out on top in as they aim to ‘squeeze everything out of the season’.

The manager previewed the contest during a press conference at the AXA Training Centre on Friday morning – in addition to the latest injury news, read a summary below…

On whether he tries to block out the emotion of this game for the players or feed off it…

Without emotion it would be a sad event, to be honest, I don’t think we should try that. Why should we? But it’s always about football. In football you need emotions but you need all your other skills as well. It’s not our first derby, maybe for one or two players but even for them it’s not a first derby, maybe just against United. No, we are OK. I was always looking forward to this game, it’s the game. United are quite a big club as well and so always when we face them it’s massive. In the last few years we did quite well but we know that they are so far playing a much better season than us, but that means nothing, how we all experienced in the last few years when we played better seasons than Man United – that doesn’t mean you just win the game, it just means you have more points. But that’s not relevant for this game, it’s just that you make sure you are really ready for it, and that’s what we try to do.

On how much he relishes this occasion and challenge…

A lot. Actually that’s what I enjoy most. I think I mentioned it plenty of times before and everybody knows it anyway – there are so many things that are much more important than football in life but around these football games we all put ourself out a little bit of this sometimes not-so-nice reality and dig into this game, and I really like that. That’s when football is the most important thing, for these 95, 98 minutes. I love that. The whole world will watch it and I would watch it if I’m not here. That’s a big game and I’m really looking forward to it.

On Liverpool’s recent form and focusing on what is achievable in the remainder of the season…

I said before the last game this is a week where I would like to give the season a proper push. With the last game and the way it went and the result, obviously we did that and now we have to make the next steps. There’s no doubt about it that nothing is done yet but that’s good, that’s good for us. Yes, we have strong opponents; United, others will come, we have to go to other places and these kinds of things. But we all know in football everything is possible so we just have to make sure that we are always 100 per cent ready and that we want it this little bit more than the other guys, and that we use in the home game moments our crowd in the right manner and that we really go for it.

So many things are possible, nobody knows where we will end up. But, how I said, I would like to squeeze everything out of the season and that means finish as high as you somehow can – but nobody knows where that will be in the moment. We just have to make the decisive steps and the next one is another decisive one and then we go from there because the next game is coming up, we go to Bournemouth, which is super-important, and all these kinds of things. I’m really fine. It’s much better to sit here facing your questions when you won the last game. That’s my first motivation, that’s why I want to win it! [Laughs] That we have a press conference after and don’t have to look at your faces and answer all the average, rubbish questions! I will tell then the boys they can make my life a little bit easier. But on top of that obviously we have five million reasons why we want to win this game. Let’s give it a try.

On whether United’s current situation adds even more to the rivalry…

When I saw now, and I don’t read a lot but when you see them from time to time, everything they are doing is great, fantastic. I can imagine how annoying that was in the last few years when we were there and everybody was talking, ‘Klopp is doing this and Klopp is doing that, wow, outstanding, and bringing in young players and doing this…’ It’s completely fine. They deserve it, they deserve where they are, they won the points, they played good football, like all the others as well. Arsenal, my God, they are flying and having results and playing really good football. I respect that a lot. Man City is Man City, playing good football and are there as well. This is not where we are this year but we were there the last few years so we want to go there again, 100 per cent. But apart from that, I couldn’t be lesser interested in what they are doing, I just respect what they do. Then we analyse it. I have time for an analysis meeting in a few minutes, then we go through it and then we will try to find a way how we can cause them more problems than we did in the first game when we played them. That’s my only thing I’m thinking about when United comes up in my mind and nothing else.

On Fabinho getting back to his best…

He is. It’s obvious. When I spoke about it, it’s a bit strange when I say then, ‘Fabinho is not at his best’ it’s like, ‘Oh, he said it.’ Everybody could see it so why should I not say the obvious stuff? Now everybody can see Fab is getting back; that’s exactly what we need obviously. We spoke a second ago about [Marcus] Rashford; OK, it’s a different position but things like this happen, you cannot explain it really, it’s just there, it happens. I was so happy about the last game of Fabinho, to be honest. So happy. Because so many things were exactly like we need him – bringing the long foot in here and all these kinds of things. It was a really good game and that’s exactly how we were used to having him; the lighthouse, the hoover, all these kinds of things. There’s a point when you take things just for granted, you lose the ball there, ‘Yeah, no problem, because there is Fabinho’ and we have the ball again. Of course you miss these kinds of things in moments when it’s not there and how can you be prepared for that? It’s now not cool and you don’t have five No.6s in the club or stuff like this. It was really, really good and I’m really happy for him and happy for us that he looks really like the old one again.