Klopp: We need to be at our best to beat West Brom

The Merseysiders’ pursuit of a top four finish is back on track after four wins and two draws from their last six games.

Although Jordan Henderson, Adam Lallana and Sadio Mane are all out injured, Liverpool will be boosted by the double return of Philippe Coutinho and Robert Firmino to the starting line-up.

The pair injected much-needed quality from the bench at Stoke last weekend, and Klopp says his team need to be at full tilt to win at The Hawthorns.

“The challenge of West Brom is big enough and has all our respect and all our concentration,” he said. “We should be at our best because West Brom have played an outstanding season.

“We know about their qualities, we know about their style, we know that they are really experienced – maybe the most experienced team in the Premier League.

“That’s another thing. And they play at home. A lot of things which cause us work.

“But we’ve nothing else to do, so we go there and we want to show again that we have really big targets this season, we want to go for it and we’ll really fight for the result.”

It’s likely Klopp will stick with the 3-5-2 formation that he tried out at the Bet 365 Stadium because it enables him to get more height into the team.

But he’s warned the rest of his squad not to rely on the Brazilian duo of Coutinho and Firmino to carry them until the end of the season.

The pair sparked a turnaround at Stoke when they both came off the bench at half-time to score a goal apiece as the Reds came from behind to win 2-1.

“It’s very important that players can play together, but if they are only two then it’s pretty difficult,” he said. “Gini Wijnaldum said it after the game, I think - yes, they had a big impact on the game, that’s 100 per cent true, but the whole team played better in the second half.

“That they are really, really good friends - maybe best friends - and it helps us a lot that they play together in the Brazil national team. But, again, if they tried to do it alone, no chance.”

Arsenal’s unexpected defeat at Crystal Palace on Monday has eased the pressure slightly on third-placed Liverpool, who are nine points ahead of the Gunners in sixth having played two matches more.

Fifth-placed Manchester United are six behind with two matches in hand but are still involved in the Europa League.

“What we can probably say is that if we would win all the rest of the games then we would be in the Champions League,” said Klopp. “Even when a few teams have (played) less games than we have because they play against each other they cannot get all the points. But it will be difficult.”