Bernardo Silva is not concerned by Manchester City’s recent run of bad form against Liverpool ahead of their crucial top-of-the-table clash on Thursday, and said they must take the game to Jurgen Klopp’s side.
City have not beaten Liverpool in their last four attempts — with three defeats last season, including losing home and away in the Champions League.
The two sides drew 0-0 at Anfield earlier this season with Riyad Mahrez missing a late penalty, while the last time they met in the Premier League at the Etihad Stadium, City thrashed Liverpool 5-0.
“It’s a very good team,” Silva said. “Last season we beat them at home, we lost there in the Premier League and Champions League. The first game they were better than us, the second game I thought we were better than them. But because of a lot of things we don’t control we lost that game.
“This season we could have beaten them, we could have won there, we missed a penalty at the end of the game. Here at home we will try to beat them again. It’s a very difficult team, a tough team, they work hard, they’re first, leading the league, so we’ll try to do it as we usually do.”
City are seven points behind the leaders and manager Pep Guardiola has described the fixture as a must-win if his side are to defend their Premier League title and Silva agrees.
“We know the pressure is a little bit more on us because if we don’t win it will be very difficult to go after them,” Silva said.
“That’s what we will try to do, it’s what we try to do every game. We will try to win the three points, especially with our fans and we’ll try to win that game.
“They know us, we know them. It’s a team that is in fantastic form with their levels of confidence very high. We’ll try to play the same way we’ve been doing all ways — keep pressing high, having control of the ball, and try to win the three points, which is the most important thing.”
City led from the front on the way to last season’s title triumph with none of their rivals able to get close to them, and Silva said they must keep the pressure on Liverpool and not let them get a comfortable distance away.
“It’s better to be that team than what we are right now,” he said. “We have to think about ourselves, we have to think that we have to win every game possible to try to reach them, to close the gap a little bit and that’s what we’ll try to do in the next game.
“We know we are seven points behind and if we win it will be only four — seven or four is very different — but we’ll put some pressure into them.
“They’ve had a lot of clean sheets — an impressive defence, the front three, everyone knows how good they are. They work a lot. The midfielders they work a lot, they press a lot.
“We know them, they know us, this season they’ve been doing very well in the Premier League and the Champions League so it’s two very good teams and we’ll try to win the game.”