I would ask all Liverpool players just one question before they face Man City

I would like to ask all the Liverpool players just one question before they face Manchester City

John Aldridge looks ahead to Saturday’s Premier League match against Manchester City in the first part of his weekly Liverpool column

This weekend’s match against Manchester City promises to be an intriguing sight.

In recent years, this has been the most important game for us as we go to the competition. That’s not the case this season, but we have to go out and do what we can. Whether it’s 8pm on a Tuesday evening or 12.30pm on a Saturday afternoon, you need to be ready to tackle the assignment. If we are to get a result, it is absolutely necessary for us to be defensively disciplined as they are progressing so well. Our away form has been a big issue all season, so what better place to end that recurring theme than at the Etihad. If you can win at City, you can win anywhere. The main problem is that we don’t know which Liverpool we’re going to have on Saturday and Jurgen probably doesn’t know either. However, what I would say is that you shouldn’t play football if you can’t improve your game against City like we did against Manchester United and Newcastle.

Phil Foden was ruled out on Saturday and Erling Haaland is said to be in doubt for City. Foden will be a big miss for them, but as far as Haaland is concerned, City always play these matches when they play Liverpool, so it wouldn’t be a surprise for him if he starts this weekend. There is little point in worrying about who will start for them as Guardiola has quality players available all over the pitch. All we can do is go out and win our fight, which gives us a good chance of getting away with something.

The question I would like to ask the Liverpool players before this game is “How many times do you want to play at the Bernabeu next year”? It’s something they need to look in the mirror and wonder after living this month on that turf. Do you want to be in the Europa League or the Conference League?

Our matches by the end of the season are all cup finals. We are playing for fourth place in a mini-league with Tottenham, Newcastle and maybe Chelsea. We have to reach the top of this league. We can only go game by game: don’t even look at the upcoming games with Chelsea or Arsenal. You can’t afford it and if you do, you’re not professional. Everything is geared towards the next game and those games are far away. You can look forward to the fight against Chelsea at 3pm on Saturday.

The reduced budget imposed by the city should work both ways

An incident during the sides’ League Cup fixture in December resulted in fewer tickets being available to Liverpool fans this weekend. I don’t condone the behavior of fans throwing coins at fans in stadiums, they are all idiots no matter what team they follow. Fair enough if Manchester City choose to take this action, but can we impose the same rules on them next time they come to Anfield and sing derogatory songs? This is another way to end Hillsborough songs once and for all.