Jurgen Klopp admitted the whole country is frightened of one Manchester City player.
Liverpool take on Newcastle on Monday evening, hoping to extend their lead over surprise package Aston Villa at the Premier League summit.
A win would also see the Reds move five points clear of City and Arsenal, though Pep Guardiola’s outfit have a game in hand.
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Despite Liverpool’s advantageous position on January 1, Klopp is not underestimating his title rivals.
Speaking to Sky Sports about being top of the league, Klopp said: “It’s a nice moment. It’s better than any other position, but besides that nothing has happened.
“We wanted to be aggressive before the season when the pre-season started. We wanted to attack. That’s what we still want, but this time with more knowledge about ourselves and more experience. So far, it’s gone okay,”
Klopp reiterated that Liverpool were yet to have won anything, adding that the whole country was “shaking” from fear at the prospect of Kevin De Bruyne’s return from injury.
The German explained: “It’s all positive. There’s no doubt about that.
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“But last week - it feels like a few hours ago - Arsenal were running away with it. If you speak today about it then you will say, ‘That’s it for them’. Tottenham were out. Now they’re back in.
“Kevin De Bruyne is warming up. The whole country is starting to shake.”
Reigning Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup champions City have been without talisman De Bruyne since the opening weekend of the season when the Belgian suffered a recurrence of a hamstring injury.
However, De Bruyne has been back in training in recent weeks and could make his return in City’s FA Cup third-round tie against Championship side Huddersfield.
On the 32-year-old’s fitness, Guardiola said: “He is almost close. We asked each other to come to the bench, to start to be in the locker room. It’s been three months, a lot of time he’s been out.
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"He’s training good and he’ll start to get minutes to get his best. It’s incredible news.
"We’re also waiting on Jeremy [Doku], Erling [Haaland] and John Stones. The second part of the season is already here and we’ll need everyone."
Topics: Football, Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool, Manchester City, Kevin De Bruyne
Chris Byfield