Liverpool will go into their Premier League clash with Manchester City with a renewed sense of confidence after putting seven past Rangers on Wednesday, manager Jurgen Klopp admits.
Klopp's side are 101th in the Premier League after a stuttering start to the season, with plenty of injuries to key players disrupting their progress. After losing at Arsenal last weekend, Klopp said Liverpool are not in the title race, and they suffered further blows this week with injuries to Luis Diaz, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joel Matip.
However, they travelled to Rangers in the Champions League on Wednesday with a point to prove, and produced a devastating second half performance to beat the Scots 7-1 — including a record-breaking six-minute hat-trick from substitute Mo Salah.
ALSO READ: Man City must beware familiar Jurgen Klopp trap ahead of Liverpool FC test
And Klopp admits the manner of their big win felt significant, giving his side a 'completely different' mood going into the game against unbeaten City.
"We usually drink a beer after away games, it’s that long ago since I drank, we’ll probably be drunk after one!" Klopp said. "We had a really positive half-time talk. We had conceded a goal, scored an equaliser and had really positive football moments. In the end we needed to get clear in the final third and obviously that worked out – all the goals were absolutely great.
"How we played and set them up and finished them. A game is 95 minutes, if you can build on parts of the first half, you have to do that and that is what we did. It changes the mood, definitely. It is completely different."
Klopp didn't go as far to position Liverpool as favourites, though, as he declared City the best team in the world before he welcomes Pep Guardiola's men to Anfield.
"That is good but we all know who we are welcoming on Sunday and this will be a different game," he said. "But it’s better to go into the game feeling like we do tonight! We will see, I am always ready for a change in the right direction, but we will see.
"We don’t have to make a big thing of it but the best football team in the world right now is coming to Anfield on Sunday. We will see what we can do. It’s not that we come with a big mouth and say: “we are waiting!” – not at all."
READ NEXT:
