Jurgen Klopp has revealed that he his relationship with Ralf Rangnick is "on hold" since Rangnick became Manchester United's interim manager earlier this season.
Rangnick and Klopp have a relationship that dates back to 1997 and the Liverpool boss has often credited United's current interim manager with being a key influence in his own coaching career.
The two men have faced each other in the Bundesliga before and have remained in contact, but this will be their first meeting outside of Germany and Klopp revealed they haven't been in touch since Rangnick took over at United in December.
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Asked about their current relationship, Klopp said: " On hold. We didn’t have contact since he was at United. I respect his job. He respects my job. I can’t make it Klopp-Rangnick game, I don’t want to.
"I respect him for everything he did in his career, he did an incredible job everywhere he’s been, he took a difficult one at Manchester United, big expectations, no time to get there because it’s like this in our business.
"You can see the changes he made and the parts he improved. When we prepare the United game I didn’t think about Ralf in that moment. It’s a very important game but the managers probably won’t score the decisive goal."
Liverpool won 5-0 at Old Trafford earlier this season in what was one of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's final games in charge of United.
Rangnick hasn't engineered much of an upturn in results but Klopp has noticed improvements, especially when it comes to the number of goals being conceded.
"Ralf tried to organise the team, give them structure with the squad they have," he said.
"United played some really, really good games but because it’s United even when you win games they say ‘this isn't there or that isn’t there’, so it's difficult to get momentum. They concede less goals for sure. "
Liverpool head into this game having reached the FA Cup final with a 3-2 victory over Manchester City at Wembley on Saturday.
At the same time United were recording the same scoreline in beating Norwich City in what turned out to be a good day for their own hopes of finishing in the top four and Klopp believes that will give them encouragement as they head to Anfield.
"It’s a big game, a massive game, the two biggest clubs in the world, there are clubs in Spain who say differently, but this is two of the biggest clubs, massive history around, big fights in the past, big fights since I’m here," he said.
"This time it’s an incredibly important game again for both teams, both are fighting for being in the Champions League next season, or more.
"United are in a situation where they won the last game, okay they didn’t like the performance but the result and the results from other games opened the door again and that’s the Manchester United we will face now, they will go for it, we have to make sure if they want to qualify for the Champions League they do it without our points but an intense 95 minutes will have to be played."
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