Eddie Howe has vowed to 'always protect the club' as the Newcastle United head coach prepares to come up against Jurgen Klopp for the first time since warning the Liverpool boss to be 'careful'.
Klopp claimed there were three sides in world football 'who can do what they want financially' back in October. Although Klopp did not specifically name Newcastle, the German went on to say that sporting director Dan Ashworth was 'absolutely right' to say the Magpies had no ceiling. Klopp sarcastically congratulated Ashworth on that before stating 'other clubs have ceilings'.
Ashworth was referring to Newcastle's ambitions, rather than the amount of money the club can spend, and Howe warned Klopp to be 'careful' with his comments. Howe does not tend to get drawn into such spats, and stressed on Friday that he would 'never make an opinion on another team' like Klopp did, but the Newcastle head coach clearly felt the need to stand up for his club.
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"I will always protect the club if I feel I need to," he told reporters ahead of Saturday's reunion at St James' Park. "I'm not going to make reference to any comment from any individual, but part of my job here is to defend the name of the club and defend everything: the people, the supporters and the players when I feel it's justified to do so."
This will also be the first meeting between the two sides since the reverse fixture at Anfield in August, when Fabio Carvalho scored a dramatic 98th-minute winner in Liverpool's 2-1 victory. Emotions certainly ran high that night; Liverpool goalkeeping coach John Achterberg stuck two fingers up at the visiting bench after Carvalho's goal while Dan Hodges, Newcastle's head of performance, threw a bottle.
Newcastle were ultimately booed off the field by Liverpool supporters, which, in a way, was a tribute to how much the Magpies had got under the hosts' skin. It proved the basis for this side's unofficial motto: 'We're not here to be popular - we're here to compete.'
"We are here to compete," Howe reiterated. "We are not here to do anything other than try to win the game we are competing in and to not be the team that everyone looks at as good losers. That's not what we want to be.
"That's what I'm trying to instil in the players every day. I want to build a winning mentality, a winning culture. That's not to say that we are going to win or we are promising to win, but we will do everything in our power to try and make that happen."
Rather than seeing this as a chance to get revenge, Howe does not want to use that night at Anfield as motivation because the Newcastle boss does not believe his players need any added incentive against Liverpool. Fourth-placed Newcastle, after all, can move a whopping 12 points ahead of Klopp's side in the table with a win on Saturday.
Liverpool, likewise, have not sought to fan the flames ahead of this huge game. In fact, Klopp paid tribute to Howe for doing an 'exceptional' job in his own pre-match press conference after Howe hailed his opposite number as someone he 'respects immensely'.
"What he’s done has been incredible," the Newcastle boss added. "How his team has played over a consistent time is unrivalled so, to me, he’s one of the very best of all-time in the Premier League."
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