‘The 7-0 was a freak result!’ | Jurgen Klopp previews Liverpool’s clash with Man Utd
Cody Gakpo has warned his team-mates not to underestimate Manchester United despite Liverpool being fancied as heavy favourites against their bitter rivals this weekend. The two teams go head-to-head at Anfield, the same place where the Reds ran out rampant 7-0 victors in the same fixture back in March.
Worryingly for United, they were in greater form then – as newly-crowned Carabao Cup winners – than they are now. They have lost seven of 16 Premier League matches this season and trail leaders Liverpool by 10 points after 16 games. The Red Devils also crashed out of the Champions League in midweek, finishing fourth in their group with one win from six matches.
Liverpool, by contrast, have lost just one domestic contest this season – the highly controversial reverse at Tottenham. As such Jurgen Klopp’s side have been widely backed to beat United comfortably having not lost at Anfield to their rivals since January 2016.
Gakpo, who scored twice in last season’s 7-0 humiliation, is not as convinced though. The Dutch forward – who may have to settle for a spot on the bench to start with this Sunday after playing 90 minutes in the Europa League on Thursday – insists Liverpool must expect a battle against Erik ten Hag’s team.
“Obviously they have a lot of quality in their team so we cannot under-estimate anything, it doesn’t matter what phase they are in, in how they perform,” Gakpo said. “They have a lot of quality so we don’t under-estimate them but we have to play our game and not really look at them.
“We can’t take them lightly. It is still a good football team with a lot of quality but we have a lot of quality as well and we just have to show it again.”
United haven’t even scored at Anfield since 2018 and have conceded 16 times across their last five visits to Liverpool’s home ground. While it has been suggested the hosts could inflict another mauling on them, Gakpo insists inside the Anfield dressing room, the focus is solely on getting the three points.
“We are looking forward to the game but we are not thinking ‘We have to score seven again’,” said the attacker, who has six goals and two assists this season. “We just go into the game focused and really wanting to win. We know we score every game so hopefully we can keep that and score some goals.”
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Looking back to last season’s iconic result, though, Gakpo – who nearly joined United instead of Liverpool in January 2022 – admitted it was an “amazing” experience and said Liverpool certainly hope to be as potent as they were that evening.
“It was a great game that one last season,” the 24-year-old added. “We know we had to win and after a good first half from both teams, the second half we really dominated and scored a lot of goals. It was a good day for all of Liverpool.
“It was amazing. At one point you are not really looking at the score, you just want to dominate and show your best and I think everyone had a really great game that day and hopefully we can repeat it.”
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