(Reuters) – Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp has told his players to view their Premier League game against Manchester United later on Tuesday as the most important three points of their lives as they continue their push for an unprecedented quadruple.
Liverpool, who have already won the League Cup and are in the FA Cup final and the Champions League semi-finals, trail league leaders Manchester City by a point with seven games left.
While fifth-placed United are on course for a fifth straight season without a trophy, Klopp told reporters on Monday that they can still cause Liverpool “massive problems” at Anfield.
“We have to be angry in a good way and all these kind of things,” he said. “Greedy, really, like you are if you have won nothing, like you would be with nil points and it is the most important three points in your life.
“That’s actually the attitude we need for this game because the quality is too high and they are too good for not being in that mood.”
Ralf Rangnick has failed to inspire a turnaround in United’s fortunes since taking over on an interim basis last year and Klopp said there was no quick fix for the club’s issues.
“We had a similar situation when I started here,” he added. “We were not flying from the first day. Let me say it like this, and you might have thought after six or seven weeks: ‘Is it really much better than before?'”
“When you are in that situation, you just accept that you need all the steps. You cannot just put on a magic sprinkle and go from there.”
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
