Jurgen Klopp warned his Liverpool team not to underestimate Newcastle United ahead of the Reds' trip to St. James' Park on Saturday.
Having beaten Villarreal in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals on Wednesday night, Liverpool are back in action on Saturday lunchtime as their Premier League title challenge continues in the north east. The club had previously failed in their efforts to get the kick-off time changed to aid their preparations in Europe.
Newcastle currently sit ninth in the Premier League table and have been on an impressive run since losing to the Reds at Anfield in December 2021. Losing just four of their subsequent matches, it is in complete contrast to their form prior to last facing Liverpool, where they had won just one of their opening 16 matches and sat 19th in the table.
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Klopp has been impressed by the transformation at Newcastle, aided by their November Saudi Arabian consortium takeover and the appointment of Eddie Howe as manager. And having seen the Magpies poach the Reds' Head of Post-Match Analysis, Mark Leyland, back in December, the German sent a message to his form colleague.
"They're on an incredible run. When our analysis meeting starts, we always see the last 10-12 results," he told reporters. "Green is when you win, red is when you lose. It was like green, green, green then red, red, red. Then again a lot of green.
"They're obviously in a really good moment and Eddie plays a massive part in that. They signed one of our analysts, that's for sure a big part as well I have to say. Mark (Leyland), if you see this, we will play a completely different team!
"They're doing really well and signed a few good players. That will happen in the future, 100%, with the power that Newcastle is now. There will be a lot of change, that is clear, but for this season, they made smart moves.
"They've brought in good players and just had stability. The players who were there before, where Newcastle fans probably thought, "Oh my god, when will he leave?" They grow into a really confident figure as well. It's really good to see what little changes can make."
Liverpool coincidentally also travelled to Newcastle in between the first and second leg of the Champions League semi-finals the last time they reached this stage of Europe's elite competition, needing a late Divock Origi winner to clinch a 3-2 win before the Belgian famously downed Barcelona days later."
The Reds would go on to win the Champions League, but would miss out on the Premier League title by just a point to Man City - the same deficit currently separating the two sides with five games left to play. Liverpool will go top, momentarily at least, if they avoid defeat against the Magpies with Klopp expecting another tough encounter at St. James' Park.
"It will be a difficult one for us. It's similar to a few years ago when we played between a semi-final," he said. "We played at Newcastle when Divock Origi (scored a) header, shoulder. That was a tough game.
"It was one of those games where I didn't understand exactly what was Newcastle's problem, why do they not like us so much? The whole stadium was on fire and we have to expect that tomorrow.
"It will be tough but we have to make sure we are ready for that. We have our targets as well, we know we need results and we try to perform as good so it's more likely than not to get one."
