Klopp eyes special City clash after Reds sink Stoke

“I’m not sure whether he watched a lot of games in the last few weeks in other stadiums”. “The result doesn’t show it but it was hard because it was the third or fourth time we’ve played Stoke with (ex-Liverpool striker Peter) Crouch on the pitch and that is a sign of how they want to play”.

Adam Lallana has been firing on all cylinders and looks a new man under Klopp: scoring 11 goals and providing 12 assists in 42 games under the German.

“That’s a good thing because if it depends on one person, it can be a problem because if that person doesn’t score, you will not win games”. Guardiola was in attendance at Anfield as he witnessed Klopp’s side put four past Stoke and move above them into second place. “It’ll be a nice game”.

“Whatever I say tonight, we can not win it tonight. But I think he can play a major part for Liverpool”.

“Of course they (Chelsea) are the team to beat because they are very experienced, maybe the most experienced team in the top flight at the moment”, Klopp said. “We know about our quality”. “Seven points is a lot, it’s a big gap and we won’t deny that”.

Former Liverpool striker Ian Rush, now on a visit to Mauritius, says Senegal’s Sadio Mane “will be missed” when he participates at the Africa Cup of Nations which kicks off on 14 January in Gabon. The reason Loris Karius was brought in is because Jurgen Klopp didn’t think Simon Mignolet was good enough – he’s now gone back to him.

Philippe Coutinho has been outstanding in 2016 and has taken his game to a different level under Jurgen Klopp. “Obviously with Liverpool they want to pressure, they want you to make mistakes in your half, they want to nick balls off you, so the game plan today (Tuesday) was to take the press out of the game”.

Things went from bad to worse for Stoke after the interval as Giannelli Imbula Wanga turned the ball into his own net in the 59th minute to give Liverpool their third goal.

Stoke boss Mark Hughes has still never won at Anfield as a manager and he was left to rue defensive errors that contributed to his team’s downfall. With the Eagles sitting just two points clear of the relegation zone, they need to pick up some points quickly.

“We’re still in the title race”, he said”. Meanwhile, Joel Matip not playing didn’t hurt the team, as Ragnar Klavan shows how wise the decision to sign him has been.

“The game was completely open and we in our creating of our moments struggled a little bit with protection, position game, holding, keeping the winger”.