Jurgen Klopp addressed the assembled media on Friday morning, as Liverpool prepare to face Stoke City on Saturday.
The Reds welcome the Potters to Anfield for Saturday's lunch-time kick-off, with a win crucial to securing a top-four finish.
The Liverpool manager discussed a range of subjects during the presser, including his views on a tricky Stoke side and any rotation he might have in mind.
Klopp told his pre-match press conference: “It will be a real challenge. Paul, who I know, is a Dortmund legend.
“They were not the most lucky team in the last few weeks; they lost a few games in the last minutes, missed chances by themselves, big chances, and then they conceded, as sometimes happens. They are very intense, very direct, a lot of fight for second balls and we have to face a lot of challenges on the pitch.
“I was a lot of times in my life in a similar situation, fighting for the league as a player was my life! I know about their emotions and I know how desperate they are to win the game.
“In the end, and it's not that I want them to go down or whatever, but if they want to stay up it needs to happen without the points of Liverpool. It needs to because we need them as well and we have a very difficult situation.
Liverpool beat Roma 5-2 in the Champions League semi-finals first leg at Anfield in midweek and will be hoping for more of the same against Stoke / Image: Liverpool FC
“A lot of people are probably expecting [us to be] resting him , leaving him out and so on, but in the end players can be injured in training in nothing, or get ill overnight. There is no guarantee.
“As long as we are fit, we have to use the boys. We have to play them and that's what we'll do because we respect Stoke, because we respect the competition and because we have really big targets, goals and ambitions.”
The Reds face Roma for the second-leg of the Champions League semi-final, holding a 5-2 lead from the first meeting. With injuries mounting up for Klopp's side, the German insisted he intends not to rest players.
“I prefer to wait until the last second, until I have to make the decisions,” Klopp told reporters.
“We have a few little things from the (Roma) game. My idea for the lineup is to win the game. It's not about resting players.
“We are desperate for points, like Stoke are. From my point of view, this is the game of the season.”