Liverpool V Crystal Palace at Anfield : Match Preview

08 November 2015 08:50
Liverpool V Crystal Palace - view commentary, squad, and statistics of the game live.


Jurgen Klopp: Liverpool's past results against Crystal Palace count for nothing

Jurgen Klopp insists Crystal Palace's recent hold over Liverpool will count for nothing when the sides meet on Sunday.

Palace proved something of a bogey side for Klopp's predecessor Brendan Rodgers, denting their title charge with an improbable 3-3 draw late in the 2013/14 campaign then doing the league double last season.

The 3-1 win at Anfield in Steven Gerrard's last home appearance was particularly chastening.

But Klopp has a clean slate heading into the fixture.

"It's good to be new," said the former Borussia Dortmund coach.

"Somebody told me about the special history with Crystal Palace but I feel nothing when I hear it.

"It's only football. In life, like sport, you can lose big but have to react in the right way...strike back, whatever.

"If we can use this experience then we should do it but nobody has to be afraid because of this opponent, it's not impossible to have a result against Crystal Palace.

"We have a good chance to win, that's what we will start to believe. Let's do it tomorrow."

Klopp's preparation time has been disrupted somewhat by the Europa League trip to Rubin Kazan.

A 1-0 win in Russia extended the club's winning streak to three games but an arrival into Liverpool at 4am on Friday morning was not ideal.

Klopp refuses to countenance that as an excuse, though, and demands his team go about their task with the correct frame of mind.

"It's better you don't play midweek, it's an advantage for Crystal Palace, but only if we are not prepared to fight," he said.

"If we wait for easy game, no chance. If we are waiting for a difficult game then we try to think solutions for these difficulties.

"We are fit, we are healthy, we are young - not all of us, but the players at least!

"They all feel good, they all want to play."

Klopp took a full-strength squad to Kazan but rested Philippe Coutinho, Martin Skrtel, Adam Lallana and Lucas Leiva from the starting side, meaning he is able to freshen up his XI.

"The good thing is everybody wants to play the next game. We all feel good, we all want to play, want to train," he added.

"It's a challenge of course, but we have pre-match and post-match analysts who work pretty well. We always feel prepared for the next opponent.

"We cannot train so much but we can work as long as we want. We have long meetings.

"We know everything we have to know about Crystal Palace."

Alan Pardew has advised Connor Wickham to observe Diego Costa, Christian Benteke and Olivier Giroud in his attempts to transform him into the complete modern striker.

The Crystal Palace manager paid an initial B#7million to sign Wickham from Sunderland in the summer and gave him a five-year contract, because of his faith in the 22-year-old's potential.

For all of Wickham's promise he rarely consistently convinced during his four years at Sunderland, most of which Pardew spent at rivals Newcastle.

After a reasonable start at Palace, despite the expectation that he will miss Sunday's fixture at Liverpool with a calf injury, the manager is already relishing his return and wants him to model himself on one of the strikers Palace are to come up against.

"We've really missed, Connor, we've lost him since we beat Chelsea, and I think his presence through the middle has been a factor in us not getting more points than we've got," said Pardew, who is also without Marouane Chamakh and Chung-Yong Lee and awaits the results of Dwight Gayle's late fitness test.

"But he hasn't got that (centre forward's) job nailed down, and he needs to understand what (Chelsea's) Costa does well, what (Liverpool's) Benteke does well, what Giroud does well for Arsenal.

"If he can add a bit of that to his game, his pace and his technique that he has, then we'll have ourselves a great player, but he is still learning.

"He was changing position from what he did mainly at Sunderland, and to turn him into a Premier League No 9, he's had a bit of a learning curve and then this injury so I need to get him back on that learning curve."




Source: PAR