Bilic reckons we can hurt Liverpool

Slaven Bilic is convinced that, “if we can play as well as I know we can, then we have a good chance at Anfield.”

He told the Evening Standard: “Don’t forget we got a point at Old Trafford recently.”

There had speculation that he may not play his strongest team but would instead save players for the more winnable looking games against Burnley and Hull City.

But he added: “Some can’t play three games in a week because of their injury situation, but we’re not going to rest half the team just because it’s Liverpool.

“It was good especially to see Andy Carroll back on the pitch and hopefully he will be fit for some part of the game this weekend — but we have to be careful with him.

“I still have faith in my players to emerge from this difficult period. We did have a meeting at the beginning of the week, but it was not a big one.

It wasn’t a full post-mortem kind of meeting — we’ve had a few of them already this season — but we did get together on the pitch just before training.

“My philosophy hasn’t changed, though. I want my team firstly to be solid but then, when we have the ball, to express themselves, hurt and harm the opposition.

Last year, we were solid and compact, especially against the big teams. Against Arsenal last weekend, though, you can’t be solid if you give the ball away in a bad area, as we did for the first goal.

If that happens, it doesn’t matter where you park the bus, or even how many buses there are!