Mark Lawrenson believes Jurgen Klopp has his sights set on Champions League glory despite facing runaway Premier League leaders Manchester City in the quarter-finals of the competition.
Liverpool host the Premier League champions-elect in the first-leg of their knockout tie at Anfield on Wednesday night, with a semi-final berth at stake for the eventual victors.
City, under the guidance of Pep Guardiola, are one win away from Premier League glory and are heavily fancied to take a step closer to another piece of silverware.
But Lawrenson insists Liverpool’s scoring prowess will give them enough confidence to provide City with a stern test.
“I’m 50-50. Liverpool still aren’t the greatest defensively [but] of course [Virgil] van Dijk has made a massive difference, and it looks like [Dejan] Lovren will play alongside him,” Lawrenson told Off The Ball’s Joe Molloy.
“City have just been unstoppable at times this season and they may just have a half or a purple patch, which as an ex-pro I’m thinking: ‘oh no, they could tear us apart’. But I honestly believe when the draw came out both managers would have thought: ‘we don’t want that’.
“If you look at Klopp’s selection for the Champions League, apart from Porto at home when they were five-nil up – he’s played his strongest team.
“And I think, privately, he thinks he can go all the way in this competition. Even if you fancy your chances against Liverpool, you know they will always score, they rarely draw a blank.”
Liverpool claimed a memorable 4-3 victory against City in a Premier League meeting between the two sides at Anfield in January, a result which ended City’s unbeaten league record.
And Lawrenson fully expects his former club to adopt the same high-press approach which yielded one of the most memorable results of Klopp’s reign on Merseyside.
“Whether it’s West Brom or Manchester City, if you make the opposition players play with their head down and not give them any time, it doesn’t really matter who you’re playing against because it’s very, very difficult to still be a great player under that immense pressure,” Lawrenson added.
“When the first man goes, they sprint as a team to close everybody else down. That’s something he does massively in pre-season training. He’ll have mannequins placed around the training ground in different colour bibs.
“And they could be playing five-a-side or they could be walking and he [Klopp] could shout: ‘Red!’ And literally you have to sprint to the mannequin as though this fella is about to walk towards your goal.
“It’s a fantastic philosophy and every player has bought into that, and the ones that haven’t, haven’t played on a regular basis.”
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