Liverpool can return to the summit of the Premier League with a win against a Magpies side that were 18th in the table as recently as January but secured their safety a fortnight ago, following an impressive late-season run of form masterminded by former Reds boss Rafael Benitez.
“[I’m expecting] a tough one,” Klopp stated in his pre-match press conference at Melwood.
“I don’t know how many weeks ago, but Rafa and Newcastle obviously felt they were still fighting to stay in the league. Since then they had impressive results and are now in a very comfortable situation; they found a proper style of play, consistent.
“After we played them [a 4-0 Liverpool win at Anfield on Boxing Day] I think they changed system into a 5-4-1 and have stuck to that since then.
“Their positions are now really well covered; Rondon up front, Perez probably will be fit again, now Atsu and Kenedy on the wings, the wing-backs are quick and deliver early crosses. So that’s good, that’s really good, and makes them pretty uncomfortable to play against away and at home, but especially in Newcastle. So that’s it, I expect a tough game.”
The German was also quizzed on his players’ mental resilience following Wednesday’s 3-0 Champions League semi-final first-leg defeat by FC Barcelona, reiterating that a mature away performance was not reflected in the scoreline at Camp Nou.
“We are not the most experienced in Europe, but we have our own experiences in Europe and we never stay too long on the last game, saying, ‘We could have done this or that better’, we don’t have time for it,” said Klopp.
“There are two things that you could think about the game: one was the result and one was the performance, and you can take a lot from the performance. In the moment you cannot take a lot from the result, but we have to try to sort that on Tuesday, and not now.
“When we flew home it was all OK, the boys were already [focused] on the Newcastle game 100 per cent. The boys have had 20 hours to recover, now we will have one session and try to prepare them for Newcastle, which is important because it will be a different game obviously, but it’s not new for us.
“It’s no problem, of course we have to prove it again tomorrow, but we didn’t have to pick up players in Barcelona and give them a hug. That’s in us, we knew it. It doesn’t happen too often, honestly, that I lose 3-0 and have much more positive thoughts about the game than negative, but it was in this game.”
The visit to St. James’ Park is the penultimate outing of what has been an intense and challenging Premier League campaign for the Reds.
But Klopp feels the aptitude his players have already demonstrated for performing under pressure stands them in good stead to do so again in the north east.
“Now we go to Newcastle, and we had this situation the whole year, there’s always the next one,” said the manager.
“I said it before, three or four clubs won the first five or six games, and each game it was like, ‘If we don’t win that, we are not in between them anymore’. It was always, ‘We have to, we have to, we have to’, that’s what we are really used to this year. That was a big, big step for us.
“I think we felt the intensity after a very successful December, there was not one game that was a little bit easy, then there were some really tough games coming up and we had a few draws.
“Apart from that, the boys’ performances in the last weeks were brilliant. In the very decisive moments, the boys were really there. So that’s good and now we have to carry on like this, not too long anymore, but still we have to.”