Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp expects to face a motivated Manchester United today.
The Reds will host United today as overwhelming favourites, having won last season’s fixture 7-0.
Klopp wrote in his match programme notes: “I would like to offer an especially warm welcome to Erik ten Hag, his staff, and the United players and supporters. Although today is a day for wanting to out-do one another, it is important that we do so in the right way and this way starts and finishes with respect. Nothing else makes sense.
“Our history, our location, and our success mean that we cannot be anything other than rivals, of course. This ‘relationship’ has been created over decades of being prominent in the English game and this makes me very proud to be part of it. Again, though, the pride I have at being part of Liverpool’s story does not mean I cannot see why those from the other end of the motorway have very similar feelings about their club.
“It also means I know what to expect today and that is a proper, proper test. I could not care less about last season’s result in this fixture. That gives us no advantage whatsoever today and, if anything, it adds to United’s incentive.
“If the rules of football allowed goals from one game to be carried on to the next I might think differently but they do not of course, which means I don’t need to remind anybody that today’s game starts at 0-0 and with both teams being equal until they prove otherwise.”