Jurgen Klopp faces an almighty task on Sunday afternoon, as he looks to lead Liverpool to victory against Pep Guardiola's Manchester City at the Etihad.
The German is yet to defeat his Spanish counterpart on his own patch in the Premier League since the latter's appointment in the summer of 2016. During that time, Klopp has suffered 5-0, 2-1 and 4-0 defeats on the blue half of Manchester.
Ending that streak this weekend will take something special, but Klopp has been plotting for this since the two teams couldn't be separated in a 2-2 draw last October. It was a tough afternoon for the Liverpool boss, as his side were poor in the first half.
The Reds were fortunate not to be at least a goal down at the interval. City youngster Phil Foden admitted he was "frustrated" not to score before the break, while Gary Lineker warned Guardiola's side "could rue not turning their dominance into a lead" on Twitter.
Klopp's team did almost make City pay, twice taking the lead through Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah - only for Foden and Kevin De Bruyne to peg them back. Despite this, the Liverpool boss knows his team can't afford another sloppy 45 minutes on Sunday.
Speaking after October's draw, Klopp revealed how he changed his tactics at half-time - deploying a more "aggressive" style to close down Guardiola's elegant team and deny De Bruyne the chance to dictate the play.
What tactics should Jurgen Klopp deploy against Manchester City on Sunday? Let us know in the comments below!
"Man City are a proper team, so there are ways to defend it - but you have to close down spaces and for that you have to step out in specific moments," said Klopp. "That’s what City want to do, play through the centre, that’s the first idea.
"But if the centre's closed, they leave the two wingers high and wide - pass the ball there - it’s a big switch or just a pass... so what was the reason for that?
"We in our line were too passive, we called the midfield line back so neither Jordan Henderson nor Curtis Jones could step out when needed, when necessary. So we were passive - they played through us, we turned and go.
"They had chances, they didn’t score from that. But what that gives you is a bad feeling, this bad feeling leads to not playing football. So then we had those long balls which made no sense - one or two of them maybe made sense - all the rest I didn’t see the reason for.
"All these things we changed in the second half. Immediately you could see we were higher, more aggressive, we felt closer, more compact so they couldn’t play in the way they wanted. We were now in the game - we scored wonderful goals."
City have struggled to handle Liverpool at their aggressive best before. In their Champions League tie in 2018, the Reds stormed into a 3-0 lead inside 31 minutes. They established the same advantage 17 months later in the Premier League, doing so inside 51 minutes.
Klopp also demanded his team to be braver in possession last October. "The message was 'play the extra pass' and we didn’t do that in the first half at all," he added. "But we have to admit today - because the game has two halves, the point is completely fine.
"Thank god a football game has two halves. We are really about the second and not so much about the first, for obvious reasons. We did a lot of wrong in the first half, City did a lot of things right - the result we could see in the first half.
"We never got really in the game [first half], never won the chances in the right moments. It was much worse. We never played enough football, so I was probably most happy in my career about the half-time whistle because it’s tricky."
Klopp went on to admit he was "happy" with the point because of the first half performance - yet he won't be feeling that way on Sunday evening if another 2-2 draw is played out. City sit just a point ahead of Liverpool at the top heading into the fixture.
The Reds are aiming to become the first English team in history to win the quadruple this season. They've already lifted the EFL Cup - beating Chelsea in February's final - and are still in with a chance of winning the FA Cup and Champions League.
With seven games remaining after Sunday, a defeat would be severely hamper Liverpool's chances of achieving the unachievable. Yet Klopp isn't describing it as a title decider. "Does anyone think that's done and dusted?" he asked in his pre-match press conference.
That is true. But, considering both teams' ability to win five, six or even seven consecutive games with apparent ease, it would be a surprise to see either of them slipping up on the home stretch. Liverpool need to be aggressive against City - and Klopp knows it.
