Jurgen Klopp has been boning up on the Goodison Park atmosphere ahead of the Merseyside derby – by watching the latest Rocky film (or spin-off if you want to be precious).
The Liverpool boss may spend every other week at Anfield – which is just a matter of yards across Stanley Park from the Everton ground – but he has apparently never been to Goodison.
But he has still been doing his homework. He told reporters: “Last night when I watched Creed that was my first impression of Goodison Park.
“When I came home I had nothing to do so I decided to watch a film, I found Creed and it was really good but I had no idea Goodison played a part.
“There are not a lot of coincidences in life but this was my first impression. It looked good.
“The favourite (Tony Bellew’s character) was from Liverpool but I have a little bit of sympathy with the other guy.”
(Photo by Dave Thompson/Getty Images)“Rocky is a wonderful story, I’ve loved it my whole life. Maybe some time I will go to the steps in Philadelphia, but not this week.”
It’s not the first time the Sylvester Stallone series of films has featured in the Liverpool boss’s managerial career after he explained he once tried to use the fourth film as inspiration for a team talk.
“When I was much younger I tried to use the story of Rocky IV, with Ivan Drago and Rocky Balboa, in a meeting,” he said.
“After five minutes I realised none of my players had a clue what I was talking about so I had to start anew. Only two players knew the film.”
We can only hope that Klopp immediately cancelled training and sat the whole squad down for a screening.
