Boss: There's no difference between City and Palace games
Jürgen Klopp was unequivocal in his insistence that Liverpool will not consider their Champions League commitments until after Saturday's clash with Crystal Palace.
The Reds pick up Premier League duties by taking on the relegation-threatened Eagles at Selhurst Park, having signed off before the international break by thrashing Watford.
In the periphery of their view is the European showdown with City, which begins at Anfield next Wednesday – but Klopp shut down suggestions of ‘balancing’ the two games.
“The decisive word in this sentence is ‘afterwards’. [The Champions League tie] will be very important then but not at the moment,” said the boss at his pre-Palace press conference.
“[There is] no ‘balance’ – we play Crystal Palace with all we have, with all intensity and all concentration.
“For a player or manager of Liverpool, the whole year everything is at least about qualification for the Champions League. Both games are about qualification for the Champions League; one is for next year, one is for this year. That’s the only difference. But they have the same importance, so no difference for us.”
Roy Hodgson’s team put an end to a four-match losing streak by securing a vital and valuable 2-0 victory at Huddersfield Town last time out.
Palace remain in a congested relegation battle but Klopp has seen enough in the south London side’s recent performances to know Liverpool must be at their best this weekend.
“I saw the full 95 minutes against Manchester United and during the analysis I saw the other games as well. Only Arsenal, an away game for Palace, did it quite comfortably but that’s not really likely,” he said.
“They had big injury blows. People only talk about [Wilfried] Zaha, who is a fantastic player no doubt about it, but Mamadou Sakho was injured, [Ruben] Loftus-Cheek was injured, [Joel] Ward was injured. They had a lot of their key players out.
“I think we all agree if they would have been all together constantly on the pitch, with the little bit of luck you always need, then they would be in another position. It’s not a typical team for fighting for [a place in] the league, with the individual quality of their players.
“They are in good shape, even when they lost a few games. Roy is doing a fantastic job there; it was the most difficult job to take, I think. [They had] no goals and no points. What he did there is outstanding, I’m not surprised about that.
“It will be tough – but for Crystal Palace as well. I don’t think Roy Hodgson is sitting in his office and thinking, ‘thank God Liverpool are coming, we have the three points already’.
“It will be a tough fight. They fight for the league, we fight for the Champions League. Hopefully everybody can see we fight for the Champions League.”