Fabinho, Matip & Lovren set to return in time for Man Utd clash

Jurgen Klopp has revealed that Fabinho, Joel Matip and Dejan Lovren are all in contention for Liverpool's clash with Manchester United on Sunday.

The Reds are closing in on a first league title in 30 years , having won 20 of their opening 21 fixtures this season.

United are the only team to have taken points from them so far - with a 1-1 draw played out at Old Trafford on October 20 - but the two sides are set to resume hostilities at Anfield in five days' time.

Liverpool have been without Fabinho over the last six weeks, with the midfielder forced to take in a spell on the sidelines while recovering from a serious ankle injury.

Meanwhile, Matip has been absent since October, and Lovren's last appearance came in a Champions League win over Red Bull Salzburg on December 10, which has left Klopp with only Joe Gomez and Virgil van Dijk to call upon in the heart of the defence.

The Liverpool boss has confirmed that all three players are due to return to full training this week, and could be involved in some way against United as the Reds target a 13th successive victory.

"I wait really until they are on the pitch and somebody tells me they are allowed to do the full session," Klopp told Liverpool's official website .

"It looks like Joel will be in, it looks like Fabinho will be in maybe a day later, I'm not sure. Dejan, maybe he can be in as well.

"That means a lot and helps massively of course. But we will see how it looks. The week is very important.

"The game on Sunday against United, we all know what people expect from us from that game. It will be a big one as well and we try to be ready for that."

Liverpool earned a 1-0 win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in their last outing, taking their points tally to 61 - the most ever amassed at this stage of a season in the history of any of the elite European leagues.

Klopp went on to assess his side's performance against Spurs, insisting there is still plenty of room for improvement despite their unprecedented recent run.

"I couldn't be more happy about the result of course and about parts of the performance. But I said to the boys already, we will never start lying to ourselves," he added.

"There are parts where we can do better, you see that. That's what we have to make sure – that we learn that immediately again and we will.

"This time it was not intensity, this time it was the rhythm break. I know people will say sometimes it's that and sometimes it's that, but it is like this.

"We were now used to [a game] three days, three days, four days, three days and now some of us had nine days. Training, yes, but not the intensity – we cannot do that and don't want to do that.

"So now we are in again and let's carry on."