“Our plan for Sunday is to use Anfield”, said Klopp.

Liverpool go into their match against Southampton on Sunday having not beaten the Saints on three occasions this season.

The first affair between the sides was a hard fought stalemate at St Mary’s in the league, the second and third ties were the first and second leg of the EFL Cup semi-finals. Southampton won both matches 1-0.

Despite having no luck against them this campaign, Klopp spoke of his admiration for the south coast side: “I like watching them a lot. Only 41 points this season!? I couldn’t believe it. ”

But, the German manager was more fixated on trying to conjure up the best possible atmosphere to rally the players on, one step closer to securing a top four finish.

“For some teams it is a nervy situation (Coming to Anfield) where they are thinking hopefully, hopefully, hopefully!

“But we need to be brave. We need to enjoy the game; we need to defend very seriously, and if possible, to use the crowd.

“We have these important games, two of them are at home, and I hope we can be in our best shape for them.”

When questioned about the crowd not always being at their best at home games, Klopp responded:

“It’s not up to me to expect something; it’s only about how it could be.

“I understand people are getting nervous in different situations and are not happy for example with this or that pass.

“The atmosphere is always really good, but we all know we had a few fantastic ones, a few outstanding, and a few normal, but it’s Anfield, it’s always really more than good.

“What we are going for is for ‘Liverpool’ , not for the players, not for the board, not for the manager, not for the coaches ; it’s for Liverpool- for all of us, the whole family, so we should try to do it together.”

The Reds’ home form has been poor as of late, which has caused the nervousness and uncertainty of fans to cascade into the atmosphere, to some degree.

Last time out at home featured a 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace, largely at the hands of former player, Christian Benteke, who came back to haunt his old team-mates.

The game previous to this at Anfield was also deeply frustrating, as Josh King rescued a share of the spoils for Bournemouth, in the dying embers to make the end result 2-2.

” We have no issue with Anfield. It’s about how we are in that moment.” Klopp added.

“I think we all can improve, and we should try to do this and not think about what happened in the last few weeks or months, because it doesn’t help.

“The only thing that helps is if we are at our best on Sunday at 1:30pm, until the final whistle.”

Liverpool’s quest for the top four was monumentally reinvigorated last weekend as both Manchester clubs, and Arsenal dropped points.

Due to this, the pressure on Klopp’s side has somewhat reduced, following their 1-0 victory at Watford on Monday night.

However, Klopp stated that:

” It’s the best pressure you can have- fighting for something important.

“If you are fighting for the top spots you have to pretty much win every game, that’s how it is.

“I think we should win the next game. But, our job is to get results, not count on them.

“No club has the opportunity to rest. We all have to fight with all we have and that makes this league so exciting.

“You have this battle, the relegation battle, and there is a lot to go for in this league.

“We focus on our ways but it is difficult enough without thinking about the other games.

“We are in it – that’s positive – but to stay in it we have to win.”

By Tom Cavilla.