It’s derby week on Merseyside and everyone has their unique way of preparing for it. Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp watched Hollywood movie Creed, the latest in Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky series, before the Monday night visit to Goodison Park. The movie features Everton fan and WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew in the ultimate finale fight, and parts of the movie were filmed at Goodison Park, Everton’s home ground.
“Last night when I went home I had nothing to do so I decided to watch a movie. I found Creed and it was really good.
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“I had no idea Goodison Park played a part in it. Maybe there are not too many coincidences in life, but that was my first impression of Goodison. Looked good.”
Klopp a self-confessed Rocky fan said, “Rocky is a wonderful story, I’ve loved it my whole life. Sometimes I will go to the steps in Philadelphia and run up, but not this week.”
For 90 minutes, football the most important thing in Liverpool city, says Klopp
The 227th edition of the Merseyside derby will take place on Monday night and Klopp understands the euphoria surrounding the derby. This will be his first visit to Goodison Park and the German manager is excited about the match-up.
“I am part of the Liverpool Football Club so it’s really easy for me to accept the importance of the game. I like the way the city live with these two big clubs.
“Football is not the most important thing in the world but on Monday night I’d say for 90 minutes in and around Liverpool probably it is. So let’s do our best.”
We want to win the game: Klopp
Things are not so great for Ronald Koeman’s side in recent weeks. After losing two of three Premier League matches, they returned to winning ways against Arsenal last week in a 2-1 win at Goodison Park. Klopp revealed that the whole team watched the Everton vs Arsenal game together after their win against Middlesbrough at the team hotel.
“The atmosphere was great. We were quite excited about the game, it was intense. There will be a real battle, two good teams against each other and my first game at Goodison - looking forward to it.
“Both the teams are in good mood after their last game. I respect the desire of Everton but we are LFC, so we wanna win the game too. There is not much difference what the place is.
Klopp says that his team have performed well
On being asked about whether he is happy about the performance of the team and how things are developing over the season so far, Klopp said, “We have a good base, not only from the point side but performance side. We can trust ourselves that at the normal day we are in pretty good shape.
“I am not in doubt about our quality but I know we will need everything out of our potential and quality to get anything at Goodison Park. It will be interesting and that’s how football should be,” said the German manager.
Everton comes first in a series of four matches during the festive period for Liverpool and the Merseyside club will be hoping to get maximum points to further enhance their title credentials.
