Virgil van Dijk admits the situation facing Manchester United is “not ideal” as Liverpool look to pile more pressure on the depleted squad of an old adversary.
One of the fiercest rivalries in English football is set to be rekindled on Sunday when Jurgen Klopp takes his Premier League leaders to Old Trafford.
Liverpool will make that trip boasting a faultless record in top-flight competition this season and with a run of 17 successive league victories under their belt.
United, in contrast, are preparing to do battle without the services of David de Gea and Paul Pogba, with injury issues continuing to offer Ole Gunnar Solskjaer an unwelcome headache.
Van Dijk told Sky Sports of how fate could be playing into Liverpool’s hands: "For them, it is not the ideal situation to lose your first-choice goalkeeper, one of the best in the world, and one of their main midfielders. They will be disappointed but for us, we just want to focus on ourselves.
"They want to bounce back for all they've done this season and it's not what they've wanted so far, but we want to go out there and extend our points tally and keep winning.
"They're not in the best way, they're not fully confident and they're not in the situation they want to be in. But the good thing about football is you can bounce back in any game. They might think this is the best occasion to bounce back from it but we know that. We want to go out and fight for every metre on the pitch and try and take the three points back to Liverpool.
"It's massive, but it's more massive for the fans. I think all of the Champions League games are as big as this. The whole atmosphere and leading to the actual game is bigger than some other games but I don't think it's the biggest of the season. The big ones are the Champions League and the ones that are hopefully going to win us the Premier League title."
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While United will not be at full strength, Van Dijk is aware that he will need to be at his best in order to get Liverpool over the line, with the commanding Dutch centre-half acknowledging that he has become a leader in Klopp’s side.
He added: "I want to be involved in every game. They're the most fun part of being a football player anyway, to go out there and show your talents to the world, try to win a game with a team you train with day in, day out.
"It's not easy, you need to look after yourself and with the life we live, it's very important to leave a lot of things. For example, we play four games in the next 11 days, you're travelling and staying in hotels and you need to watch what you eat, drink and make sure you recover well.
"I'm not complaining, not at all, but you need to look after yourself because at the end of the day, the people are coming to the stadium to watch you play and it doesn't matter if you had a cold the day before, they want you to turn up on matchday.
"That's why it's very important to look after yourself and a big part of that is staying fit. Luckily, so far, I've been doing that pretty well and hopefully I can keep doing it.
"My role is the same with or without the armband. I try to take responsibility because in my position, I have to and I want to as well. I tried to lead the boys from behind and most of the time, I have an overview of the whole pitch so I can try to shout to the front three, whether they hear it or not.
"Around me as well with the goalie, the full-backs, or the midfielders, I try to shout at them, whether it is nonsense or things that are necessary and need to be said. I think it is a very important thing in football to keep each other awake and alert. Sometimes they have to shout it to me as well and they will."
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