Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has cautioned his side not to underestimate Chelsea ahead of their opening Premier League game of the season.
The Reds travel to London on Sunday afternoon to face Mauricio Pochettino’s side at Stamford Bridge.
Both clubs endured a disappointing 2022/23 season which saw them miss out on Champions League qualification and will hope to mount a stronger challenge for at least a top-four finish.
“Of course not, we don’t know [the impact]. It’s two, I think, really good football teams, very talented football teams, [who] will face each other,” Jurgen Klopp said.
“We watched obviously Chelsea on the tour, whatever we could get from there, from the last games they played, the Dortmund game [and] Newcastle game. A lot of good things. You can see that, it’s a really talented team, that’s what we have to prepare for.
“It’s a home game for them, the first home game after a long break, if you want, after a disappointing season, that’s all clear. So they want to show up, definitely. New manager, Poch is a top manager, so they will show up. We have to be ready. We have to be absolutely ready. The football they played you can see it – Poch is there.
“We played against Mauricio often when he was at Tottenham, so you can see a lot of similarities from that time and in the end we don’t know exactly. I think Nkunku was a key part of the plans. Very unfortunate for the boy and for Chelsea with his bad injury.
“I think that was something they really planned with, but they have really good options offensively to solve that. Let’s see. It’s the first football game, real competitive football game for us this season. We don’t want to waste time, or whatever, we really want to go for it, but we have to see how it goes.
“Everybody asks, and I am more than 20 years in the business, it’s always the first game, people say you don’t know where you stand exactly, I’m not really interested, to be honest. I want us to 100 per cent [see] what we have that day and from there we go. I think we should give it a proper try.”
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