Jurgen Klopp wants Liverpool to “use the positive feeling” from their 7-1 win in midweek, but has warned of a “big gap” between Rangers and Man City.
A thrashing of Rangers at Ibrox put the Reds firmly in contention for a place in the Champions League last 16, with only a point required at Ajax next time out to guarantee progress.
But despite the nature of their victory, there are concerns over a false dawn for Liverpool, having already beaten Bournemouth 9-0 this season.
After that win over Bournemouth, Klopp’s side struggled to overcome Newcastle, before drawing 0-0 with Everton and then losing 4-1 to Napoli, and they are still yet to win in the Premier League since.
The manager is clearly aware of that, as he discussed the challenge facing Liverpool ahead of the visit of Man City on Sunday.
“With all respect to Rangers, we know there’s a big gap between Rangers and Manchester City,” he explained.
“We have to prepare the game in a different way, of course, but with aspects of that. Using the positive feeling we have now, but that alone will not give us anything against City.
“In the last few years we were always pretty brave against City.
“Now, we realised before we changed the system that this bravery in defending led a little bit to a few gaps which we couldn’t close in the moment.
“We have to see who we can line up for Sunday. We cannot just make decisions and say ‘everybody is available’. They are not.
“We have to make sure that we are the best defending unit we can be in the moments they have possession.
“That means everything. That means defending, that means high press, that means midfield press. That means all the different areas where you have to defend them in ways that you can cause them problems.
“That’s what we have to figure out, which are the right moments to go for them and where we have to let them come a little bit.
“Then, when you have the ball, you need to have everybody, in an ideal world, being full of confidence, being cheeky, being flexible, passing the ball.
“You could see we played a good game at Rangers, even when we were 1-0 down, the football we played against the defensive unit was really, really good.
“Harvey and Fabio were really involved in that, were really flexible. Both sixes did really well. That was really helpful and that’s what you have to do.
“You have to pass the ball around and let them defend as well.
“Usually the problem is that they are that impressive and dangerous in all the things they do that sometimes you forget that you can cause them problems as well.
“That’s a normal reaction on pressure. But we have to remind ourselves that’s possible and then we will see what we can do with that.”
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