Merseyside derby: Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has faith in new-look midfield

Jurgen Klopp has backed his new-look midfield to thrive in the cauldron of the Merseyside derby on Saturday.

The Reds have a formidable record against near neighbours Everton, losing just one of the last 25 duels with their city rivals.

However, they have undergone a significant churn in personnel since the end of last season and with it have lost a large amount of derby experience.

The Merseyside affair is often a fesity contest and ranks as officially the league's most ill-disciplined fixture when it comes to red cards.

Hosts Liverpool are particularly dominant at Anfield but could start the game with all three of their midfielders making derby debuts, with summer arrivals Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch and Wataru Endo all pushing to start.

“It is a special game no doubt but a high pressure game and they all played them," said Klopp when asked if that lack of experience could be a problem.

"[Mac Allister] played the World Cup with Argentina, Dom [Szoboszlai] played Serbia recently in a super-important, high-pressure game so they are all used to the kind of game.

“The exact game, no, but I cannot show them a movie of derbies and say that is how they should be. I don’t think we have to make it too big.”

Everton go into the game having experienced a slight improvement in results after a poor start to their Premier League campaign. They beat Bournemouth 3-0 in their last outing before the international break and the consensus is that performances have been better than results.

Klopp added: "Dominic Calvert-Lewin is an important player for them, [Abdoulaye] Doucoure is back to his best, with [Jack] Harrison and [Dwight] McNeil on the wings. That is quality, real quality. [Amadou] Onana, [James]