The Reds boss is aware the visitors will focus on stifling his men with a mixture of physicality and an aerial onslaught to circumvent their fluency.
“West Brom plays like West Brom, Tony Pulis has a specific way and he is very experienced in this and it makes him successful in the last few years with different teams,” Klopp explained in his pre-match media briefing at Melwood. “We have not had a lot of bad results until now this season, but we have a lot of problems to solve.
“That’s what we will have against West Brom again, but I don’t think that games we played until now will have a big influence on the preparation from West Brom.”
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Klopp has preached patience — both from the crowd and his players — as Liverpool attempts to breach what will be an incredibly stubborn Baggies’ backline.
“There won’t be big spaces, everybody knows about West Brom, how they defend, there are no easy ways to go through,” he explained. “On the other hand, even if they don’t play then each set piece is a threat, for every team in the league, not just for us. We need to be ready for this. When we can stay confident in the game, all of us, then there will always be a chance. When you stay in the race, when you stay confident, then there’s a lot of space available to us. If you only wait for an easy moment, you have no chance. West Brom is a very, very experienced team with a very experienced manager so they don’t come here to make it easy for us or easy to enjoy for our crowd.
“They want a result and I respect this so we need to find a way to play them, that’s all. For this, we need what you said and what is kind of the truth, that we need to be angry but at the same moment be patient enough, all of us, the crowd and the players. All that they are doing in defending is to make us feel uncomfortable [and] not to [allow us] to do what we want to do, what we are good at. That’s not easy to enjoy but if we are ready to enjoy each challenge, if we are ready to celebrate each challenge we have won, if we are ready for a real tough football game, then it’s to enjoy because it’s another kind of football.”
Klopp admits grabbing an early lead would make the job easier, but doesn’t expect that to occur.
“As always, early goals would help — three early goals really help! But that’s not really likely. They are really experienced and very good in defending and very good on set pieces,” he said. “They want to have set pieces, of course. There’s not only one way to be successful but we cannot choose their way and they cannot choose our way, so we have to find a way in this game to be the better team.”
