Everton are without a Premier League victory since the end of September and Klopp knows his side’s best chance of increasing that seven-game winless run is to ensure there is no additional fire in the belly of a confidence-shot and injury-hit Blues. One of the most intriguing subplots to the game, of course, centres around the identity of the man in the opposite technical area. Eyebrows were raised on both sides of the Stanley Park divide when Rafa Benitez accepted Farhad Moshiri’s overtures to become the next Everton boss back in the summer. Klopp can understand why it would be the pertinent talking point in the build up to the game, but refocused his own train of thought to matters on the pitch itself.
Jurgen Klopp said: “There are other derbies in the world and there are some special things in this derby, probably no other derby has, we all know exactly why it is like that. But was I surprised? I can’t remember. For sure I am not surprised anymore. I understand completely that with two clubs in the same city, people make a big thing of it, it is a big thing. But in the end, after all the talks around it, there must be a football game played. In the past when they played it before I arrived here, you would watch a highlight video of some things you don’t want to see in football, it would probably be easy to find some stuff on the Liverpool and Everton side of things. Since I have been here, we always try to play a football game.”
The determination to ignore the badge on the shirt of the opposition speaks volumes about how Klopp views this local skirmish. His comments chime with those made after Saturday’s 4-0 drubbing of Southampton at Anfield when,
Jurgen Klopp said: “Am I looking forward to Wednesday? I should do, but it’s a game people make too much of. I don’t like the way it is approached. Very often things go over the top. We want to play football there and let’s see what the opponent wants.”
