Klopp: Liverpool won’t be giving Boro clash special treatment

It’s a match that will determine whether this season is a success or failure, but Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is adamant that his pre-game expectations remain unchanged.

If the Reds beat relegated Middlesbrough on Sunday they are guaranteed Champions League football next term at the expense of Arsenal, who play Everton.

Klopp, 49, will likely have his performance this season judged on whether or not his side make the top four, but the straight-talking German doesn’t think any special preparation is necessary.

“I don’t think we need different kinds of descriptions for this game, so it’s a ‘cup final’ or a ‘World Cup final’ or that it’s the most important game of however many years and everything,” he said.

“It is a football game. If we really – and I know we do – expected from ourselves that in each game we win the game, what is the difference?

“We always have this kind of pressure; that we want to win the game, that we have to do the right things, we have to defend well, we have to be good organisationally, we have to create chances and we have to score goals.

“So that is not a big difference and I don’t think that anybody needs this special motivation or whatever. In the end, we have to play football and I am really happy I have a team able to do this.

“It’s all good and what everybody would expect from a football season, that you would have to fight until the end – and that’s what we do.”