FOR this game versus Dortmund John’s gone with the facts. Done it excellently as per. Shall we do the feelings? The emotions?

I like the reported German approach and response to football. I like it. The game as event. The game as a thing to look forward to and be excited by. Opportunities rather than banana skins. I like that things are cool. I like the fact our manager is loved by our opponents in this game. I like that he fought for them for seven years. I like that they sing You’ll Never Walk Alone and I like that they are looking forward to us coming. I can’t wait to see that ground and be in that ground. I love the event. I love being part of an event.

Let’s make it absolutely clear therefore: I want to beat them. I want to destroy them. I want to spend 90 minutes watching Liverpool win first, second and third balls. Liverpool first to everything. Liverpool in your face. Liverpool turning you round.

It’s strange, coming over for this and looking to speak to a ton of people about the game itself and the game as a whole. We’re here to talk and work and find out what they have been up to. We’re also here to see what Liverpool are up to. Where Liverpool are up to. Because as John has told you, Dortmund are a good, good side. A test.

• Borussia Dortmund v Liverpool: Preview show with The Yellow Wall Podcast
• Borussia Dortmund v Liverpool: Why I’m NOT Loving The Love-In
• Borussia Dortmund v Liverpool: What Can Liverpool Expect Tonight?

It’s a game I want to win as much as the one against Manchester United. And when we are chatting to people over here, much like when we speak to Steve Armstrong or when Andy Mitten speaks to me, we’ll have our conversations in the spirit of friendship and respect.

But then there is a football match and that football match is about Liverpool leaving Borussia Dortmund safe in the knowledge they have been in a hell of a game, safe in the knowledge that it will be even more hellish next Thursday, safe in the knowledge that it isn’t quite as cool as they thought. That Liverpool aren’t cool. That Liverpool are afuckingblaze.

You can stick your logic and you can stick your facts. It’s a series of individual and collective contests over 90 minutes and Liverpool can win on both counts.

I don’t want any feelings of inferiority after the two legs are over. I don’t want our manager looking afterwards thinking “I left that for *this*.” And I don’t want them wondering if he is yesterday’s man. If it is going to be a party I want us to crash it. A 90-minute whirling dervish.

I want a goalkeeper the most switched on he can be. You think they haven’t studied his weaknesses? He’ll get harried. I want defenders red in tooth and claw. I want midfielders who know when to strike and when to attack and I want pure strikers who sit on the bench and wait to complete the coup de grace.

That’s right. I want Liverpool about to win the game right through the 90 and I hope Jürgen goes with the set up that beat Manchester City and Chelsea away. Can, Henderson, Milner; Coutinho, Firmino, Lallana. Sturridge and Origi to come off the bench and Liverpool shouldn’t be afraid to introduce both relatively early and simultaneously. Do what the opposition doesn’t want you to do. Set problems and then set new problems.

Outsmart them and outfight them — then outplay them. If anything ever has been The Liverpool Way it is that. Let’s talk to them about their thing and emphatically show them ours.

The side which will be the most up the Reds: Mignolet; Clyne, Lovren, Sakho, Moreno; Can, Henderson, Milner; Coutinho, Firmino, Lallana.