Football

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp backs Manchester United to make the Premier League top four this season


Jurgen Klopp has been impressed by Manchester United (Picture: Getty Images)

Jurgen Klopp has been impressed by Manchester United this season and reckons they will make a return to the Champions League next campaign.

Liverpool host the Red Devils in the Premier League on Sunday as they look to gain revenge for the 1-1 draw at Old Trafford in October.

Not a terrible result by any means, but it was the only game in the Premier League this season that Liverpool have failed to win, picking up three points on all 20 other occasions.

Klopp has struggled against United since he arrived in the Liverpool dugout, winning just two of 10 games against the Red Devils in all competitions, and just one of the last eight.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side go into the clash at Anfield fifth in the league table and five points behind Chelsea in fourth, but Klopp reckons they will make it back into the Champions League this season.

‘United have a really good football team, talented and experienced. There is a lot of good potential on the pitch,’ the German assessed.

‘I think they will probably qualify for the Champions League this season.

‘So, of course they can beat us. But they can only play as good as we let them play.

‘If we are at our best it’s difficult for every team. It’s our stadium so we have to make sure everybody knows that.’

Liverpool look like they could wrap up the Premier League title weeks before the end of the season as victory over United on Sunday would move them 16 points clear of Manchester City with a game in hand of their nearest challengers.

Their 61 points from 21 games is already the best start to a season by any team in any of Europe’s top five leagues ever.

The earliest a team has won the Premier League title is Manchester United in 2001 and Manchester City in 2018 when they both did so with five games to spare.

If they keep picking up points at the rate they are doing, Liverpool can beat that, claiming the league with six games left, when they travel to Manchester City on 4 April.

That meeting at the Etihad could also see Liverpool match Arsenal’s record of 49 Premier League games unbeaten, if they make it that far, so it truly could be an historic day in Manchester for Klopp’s side.

‘Liverpool are more likely to get to the 49th game unbeaten than not,’ said Arsenal hero Paul Merson. ‘They could draw six of the next eight games and still win the league!’

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