Jurgen Klopp will ensure his title-chasing Liverpool players remain wary of the ‘proper speed’ that Norwich City possess on the counter-attack as they try to cause an upset at Anfield.
The Reds chief spoke about his admiration for the work of his fellow German coach Daniel Farke at City in the past and remains full of respect for the Canaries now that Dean Smith has taken charge of the top flight survival search.
While the hosts are heavy favourites as they try to at least maintain the nine-point gap to leaders Manchester City, with a game in hand, Norwich have revived their hopes since the former Villa boss arrived in November.
“You all know how much I like and respect Daniel Farke, who is now somewhere in Russia (Krasnodar) working,” said Klopp at his pre-match press conference.
“He did an incredible job there but the start of the season was obviously pretty tricky. Then Dean came in and Dean was where he was in football, he had success in football because he is good, really good.
“The things he is doing are good. They bought a few new players (last summer), very interesting signings from the first day.
“Two of them I know pretty well, in Sargent and Rashica, so it’s a really good, football-playing side.
“They didn’t get the results obviously and that’s why they have the points tally that they have, but are still a really good football-playing side.”
City had beaten Everton and Watford to move out of the relegation zone prior to the winter break but are back in the bottom three after Newcastle capitalised on a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace and a 4-0 defeat to Manchester City at Carrow Road.
“When you think about Norwich, they just will not stop believing in staying in the league and I admire that actually, I really like that,” Klopp continued.
“You can see that in the way they play, it’s a very positive style, pretty direct as well but if you let them play, with the guys they have in midfield and the strikers up front, then they will play.
“If you give them a chance to go in behind your last line then they will go because they have, especially with Rashica and Pukki, proper speed there.
“So we have to be pretty much everywhere at 100 per cent because we have to try to avoid these passes in behind. To do that you have to make sure that you have a really good set-up for that.”
The Merseyside giants have won seven on the spin in all competitions but suffered an injury blow during Wednesday’s 2-0 win at Inter Milan in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.
Portuguese forward Diogo Jota, who has scored 18 goals this season, injured his ankle and will miss the match as the extent of ligament damage is assessed.
Star forwards Mo Salah and Sadio Mane returned from Africa Cup of Nations duty unscathed though and £38m January signing Luis Diaz has also started to impress as one of Klopp’s attacking options.
The Reds have already beaten Norwich 3-0 twice at Carrow Road this season, in the league and League Cup, with another Anfield meeting at the start of next month in the FA Cup fifth round.
Whereas City played a midweek friendly against Nottingham Forest to give some players minutes, the hosts are preparing for their 38th game of the season already, 10 more than Norwich have played.
“We obviously cannot ignore our situation, we played on Wednesday night and only came back yesterday (Thursday) because of the wind, now we play again on Saturday,” Klopp concluded.
“It’s just, for different reasons, a difficult game for us but I really hope for the support that however windy it will be, that the crowd push us even more.”
Liverpool play their game in hand on the leaders on Wednesday, at home to Leeds, and then take on Chelsea at Wembley in the League Cup final the following Sunday – three days before they face the Canaries in the FA Cup.
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