• ‘Manchester United were more physical and stronger than we were’ • Tony Pulis’s West Brom held Liverpool to two league draws last season

Jürgen Klopp has described Manchester United’s display at Liverpool as timely preparation for dealing with the aerial approach of Tony Pulis’s West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.

Liverpool host Albion having kept their first clean sheet of the Premier League season against United at Anfield on Monday. José Mourinho’s tactics stifled the attacking style of Klopp’s team but did not exploit their vulnerability at set pieces or against the long ball, with the central defenders Joël Matip and Dejan Lovren marshalling the lone striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

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Klopp believes Mourinho’s gameplan should prove a valuable exercise for his defenders against Pulis’s team, who frustrated Liverpool in two Premier League draws last season. Asked whether United’s approach was good preparation for Albion, Klopp said: “Yes, partly. We all know we have had to watch out for a few problems that we had last season, although we are not suffering from the same amount.

“We are a football-playing side and Manchester United were more physical and stronger than we were with a lot of tall players. We did it well and I cannot remember there was a big advantage in this game out of these situations.

“We need to be ready again for situations like this [on Saturday]. You can always use a few things from the last game but on the other hand it will be different again. Defending these balls was important, very important in the United game and will be important in the next game. Playing football would have been important in the Man United game too and will be very important in the West Brom game. There is a lot of work to do.”

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Mourinho accused Liverpool of being the cautious side in the flat, goalless draw at Anfield on Monday due to Klopp’s deployment of both Emre Can and Jordan Henderson as defensive midfielders plus his decision to replace Daniel Sturridge with Adam Lallana.

The Liverpool manager, however, refused to be drawn on his United counterpart’s barbed comments regarding the performance. “I am not interested in it,” Klopp said. “I thought the game was over, so why should I talk about it still? I don’t care what anybody says after the game.

“I know the game already and I know what I have to learn from it. You want to write what you saw and if it is the same and what other people say, I don’t know if that is good or bad, but use it or leave it.

“Don’t bother me with things like that. I am not a per-cent interested. You cannot win the game after the game, which I have learnt early on in my career. We have a point and it felt positive because it was one more point than before the game. It was a good experience for us, we were not perfect, that is all.”