Jurgen Klopp praises ‘incredible’ Man Utd player and six other stars ahead of Liverpool clash

Jurgen Klopp saluted ‘incredible’ Marcus Rashford's turnaround as Liverpool prepare to face Manchester United.

Rashford has been in scintillating form in Erik ten Hag's first season as Old Trafford boss. The forward has scored 25 goals in 39 appearances, with the Red Devils winning the Carabao Cup and not completely out of the Premier League title race.

Liverpool sit sixth in the table and have a battle on their hands to qualify for the Champions League. But they head into the showdown against their fierce rivals on the back of three league wins in four games - not conceding a goal in the process.

Klopp knows his side will have a difficult task nullifying Rashford - yet he's not United's only potent threat.

The Reds boss said: "First of all, it’s difficult - pretty much impossible - to be happy about something at Man Utd when you are the Liverpool manager for seven-and-a-half years. It’s not that I watch them and hope they win but I’m really happy for Rashford. Very difficult for him last year, he was not performing on the level he’s able to perform. I knew it would change again. Sometimes in life, we don’t have enough time to change it but here, now he’s playing incredible.

"How calm he is in front of goal, he scores worldies, he scores the simple ones, he’s there to put his head in. We’ve played obviously before against world-class offensive players and if you try to do that in a one-vs-one situation, you will always be on the wrong end of it. We have to defend it collectively, he’s not the only decisive player. [Bruno] Fernandes’ movements are really smart and surprisingly is there, Casemiro linking up all of this stuff.

"Whoever is playing next to Casemiro will be a good footballer - Fred, [Scott] McTominay, whatever. [Christian] Eriksen is a miss because he played a really good season and the defending, man-marking orientating way makes it really physical then the counter-attacks and the other winger whoever it will be - [Alejandro] Garnacho, [Jadon] Sancho - then upfront the Dutch fella [Wout Weghorst] is really physical.

“It’s obviously not a team built for the next 20 years because of the players signed but for now, they are really good.”