The Reds boss believes there will be no room for error as they appear to overturn a one-goal deficit from the first leg in Spain.
Jurgen Klopp has issued a war cry to his Liverpool players beforehand of their quest to overturn a 1-0 deficit towards Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.
The Reds’ first-leg clash in Spain marked the begin of an uncharacteristic hunch for Klopp’s men, with losses to Watford and Chelsea taking the club’s record to three defeats in 4 games after having until now lost simply twice in all competitions till mid-February.
Since then, a Premier League victory over Bournemouth saw Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah return to goalscoring form beforehand of Wednesday’s match-up with Atletico at Anfield, however Klopp nevertheless admits that his players will have to be at their exceptional to get past Diego Simeone’s well-oiled unit.
“We need to be almost perfect. That’s how it is,” the Liverpool boss said. “We have to attack, we have to create, we have to guard like by no means before in our life and we have to engage – we need Anfield. That’s the fact but it is always like this.”
Another thing Klopp believes his charges need to seem out for is Atletico utilising football’s so-called ‘dark arts’, with the Reds boss believing that Mane was centered by opposition players in Madrid which finally resulted in the Senegalese being changed at half-time following a yellow card.
“We spoke about that already however we will in all likelihood mention it again,” Klopp stated of Rojiblancos players allegedly attempting to con officials. “It would assist 100 per cent [to have our great players on the pitch for ninety minutes].
“Sadio did nothing wrong, honestly nothing, and I nonetheless thinking in the next situation it will be [a red card]. You continually want a referee who is conscious of situations like this, we can’t do it through ourselves. We have no influence over that. We have to deal with it.”
Klopp added: “We anticipate a really ‘experienced’ overall performance from Atletico, let me say that. In all extraordinary departments ‘experienced’ however we have to deal with that.
There is any other area of dootball where we can be better than the first game and better than Atletico however we have to exhibit that.”
The Reds will have the added boost of captain Jordan Henderson returning from injury, though Klopp was coy over whether or not the midfielder would take any part in the game.
“Hendo is geared up however what we do with that, I do not know,” he said. “Or possibly I do know and I just don’t say!”
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