'We're ready for City challenge'
Steve Clarke acknowledges Liverpool will need to be at their best if they are to beat Manchester City on Sunday - but insists the players have been preparing hard at Melwood all week to ensure they're primed for the challenge.
The Reds play host to Roberto Mancini's table-topping side on Sunday, who will arrive on Merseyside having dropped only two points from their 12 league matches so far this term.
And first-team coach Clarke told Liverpoolfc.tv: "They're top of the league - and they're top of the league on merit. They've only dropped two points, but we look forward to the challenge.
"We prepare ourselves - that's always what we try to do. We try and prepare our players and the way we want them to play.
"We feel if we can perform to our maximum, and the players can all perform to their maximum on the day, we can give any team in the Premier League a game.
"I don't think they have a main threat - they have a number of top-quality players, all capable of causing a problem.
"It's up to us as a team and as individual players to handle that threat and if we do that we'll be okay."
Liverpool will head into the game on the back of a 2-1 victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last Sunday.
Nonetheless, nobody at Melwood has been carried away by the result, insists Clarke.
"We've beaten Chelsea - but we can only speculate about the Manchester City game," said the Scot, when asked what sort of message beating two of the league's biggest sides within the space of a week would send out.
"Obviously we'll go out and try and win. We don't get carried away. Like I said after the Swansea game, we try not to get too low when things seem to be against us, and we don't get too carried away when things are looking rosy.
"We've had a good result at Stamford Bridge and we look forward to another big challenge this weekend."
Liverpool have drawn their last three league fixtures on home soil, and while Clarke is adamant that this sequence will have no bearing on the showdown with City, he plays down any suggestion a win could be the catalyst for an improved run of form at Anfield.
"I'm not so sure it's going to kick-start anything," he said. "You just have to take every game as it comes.
"We've dropped points at home we feel disappointed to have dropped, but we can't do anything about that now. We have to look at the next game, we have to attack it with relish and try to get the win we need."
While Liverpool will have had a full week to prepare for the contest come kick-off on Sunday, City travelled to Italy in midweek to take on Napoli in the Champions League.
Yet Clarke insists only time will tell if the extended rest will hand the Reds an advantage.
He said: "We'll find out at the weekend. Sometimes when you've had a good performance, you want to play the next game really quickly.
"There are two sides to the argument. One is that we will have had time to recover physically and mentally and to prepare. But there is also a school of thought that playing all the time like Man City are keeps momentum going."
One of several impressive performers at Stamford Bridge last weekend was Craig Bellamy.
The Wales striker joined the Reds on transfer deadline day from City, though Clarke doesn't believe he will feel he has anything to prove to his former employers.
He said: "I don't think Craig has a point to prove to anybody. Everybody knows he's a fantastic player. He's done great for us and we're really pleased with his contribution - and long may it continue."