Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp claimed on Friday that West Ham United is one of the Premier League’s strongest teams as he encouraged his squad to perform at their absolute peak against last season’s Europa Conference League champions.
West Ham, which sold crucial player Declan Rice during the offseason, will visit Anfield on Sunday after a strong start to the campaign that saw them win three of their first five games and place sixth in the standings with 10 points.
Despite being three points clear of the next-place team and in third position, Klopp urged his team not to relax when playing David Moyes’ senior squad.
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“There are so many extremely strong opponents, West Ham is one of them,” Klopp told a press conference.
“I’m happy for David (Moyes) that he really built this team now over a few years. Even with Declan Rice out, they look really good.
“With all the other guys they had already, it looks really solid and that makes it really tricky.
“It means for us we have to be the best version of ourselves,” he added.
The German added clarification to his prior remarks about kickoff times by stating that later kickoff times were preferable for obtaining top performance.
“It’s not a problem to play Thursday to Sunday.
” It would be better if we played a bit later, but people misunderstand when you talk about 12:30pm (on a Saturday),” he said.
“It’s only two-and-a-half hours before the 3pm games, that’s true, but it’s completely different when you have a pre-match meal at 9am.”
After receiving an early match against Wolverhampton Wanderers following the international break, Klopp had expressed his anger last week.
On Sunday, they will tip off at 2 p.m. local time.
“You can’t get the guys up at five o’clock in the morning to be 100% ready for the game. All these things are very difficult,” he added.
Virgil van Dijk will be back in defence for Liverpool, which defeated LASK 3-1 on Thursday in the Europa League, after the Dutchman missed the previous two domestic contests due to suspension.