Klopp: “My relationship with Ralf Rangnick is ‘on hold’ until after the game”

There has been a lot of talk recently about Liverpool and Manchester City forming a new rivalry in English football but Jürgen Klopp has been at Anfield long enough to understand that the club has two much bigger and long-standing rivalries - one is with neighbours Everton, the other is with Manchester United - the two clubs which his side must face before the week is out. The Reds, who secured their place in the FA Cup final at the weekend, remain one point behind City at the top of the table with seven games to go. No one would relish scuppering Liverpool’s title chances more than United, who are guests at Anfield tomorrow night - or Everton, who cross the park to meet Klopp’s team on Sunday.

United go into Tuesday’s game as much in need of points as Liverpool. Victory over Norwich at the weekend, with Spurs and Arsenal both losing, has put Ralf Rangnick’s team right back into the melee for fourth place. That has added extra spice into what has traditionally been one of the biggest fixtures in the English top flight. “When they draw up the fixtures list, it’s one of the first games I look for,” Klopp admitted in his pre-match press conference. “To see which way around the games are, because obviously it’s slightly different in England because you know the first half of the season but in the second half you have no idea - it could be anywhere. You have a look and see who else you play around that game, or if there could be a Champions League game around these kinds of fixtures. It’s a big game... it’s a massive game. Two of the biggest clubs in the world I would say - maybe in Spain, they’ll disagree. Massive history, some big fights in the past - and since I’ve been here too. We’ve had some strange games against United. I took us a while until we could win there. We had to learn to deal with all of these things - some players had to learn how to deal with it because of how much this game means to United. This time, it’s an incredibly important game again - for both teams. And that say it all. Both teams are fighting for being in the Champions League next year or more, we will see, and that makes it even more tough. United won the last game and with other results, the door is open again for them - that is the Man United we will face now. They will go for it, and we have to make sure that if they want to qualify for the Champions League, they’ll have to do it without taking points from us. An intense 90 minutes will have to be played”.

This game is not about the managers - Klopp

Ralf Rangnick was a mentor to Klopp when he was still an aspiring young coach learning the ropes in the Bundesliga. When United hired their interim coach back in November, the Reds boss confessed that he is grateful for everything he has learned both directly and indirectly from ‘Big Ralf’ but their friendship will be put aside for 90 minutes at Anfield. When asked where his relationship with Rangnick was at, Klopp quipped, “On hold... And besides, we haven’t been in contact since he’s come to England to join United. We have a mutual respect - he respects my job, I respect his job. But I don’t want to turn this into Klopp versus Rangnick, or Rangnick versus Klopp. I respect him for everything he’s done during his career. He’s done an incredible job wherever he’s been. He’s got a difficult one at Man United, that’s clear, with big expectations and no time to get there... but that’s how it is in our business. But you can see the changes he’s made and the parts he’s improved. I didn’t think about Ralf when we were preparing for the United game, because you watch the games and prepare for the teams - it’s not about Ralf or me”.

As in recent weeks, Klopp didn’t want to get ahead of himself by weighing up Liverpool’s double, treble or even quadruple chances this year, but he did pay tribute to the team’s unsung heroes, the players who are never in the limelight or don’t get as much playing time but who he says are vitally important in keeping the Reds machine running. He concluded, “Some players who were in the squad at the weekend, won’t be tomorrow - even though they are in really, really good shape... If we achieve anything this season, it will be because of how all the boys deal with the situation - that means the boys who are not in the squad from time to time. Because they make sure the quality of our training remains at an extremely high level. All credit to them, they are absolutely outstanding. I have to make decisions, I have to do something, as seeing as I don’t run out on the pitch, score goals, defend... etc. I have to do something and decision-making is one of them. You try to figure out what is you best possible formation, and we will have to make these decisions from now until the end of the season”.