COMMENT: "...and now you're going to believe us?" Well, not yet. But come 4pm on Sunday, we'll know more - much more - about the title credentials of Liverpool this season.
Sunday at Anfield. It won't be Liverpool versus Manchester United. Not even Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Bobby Firmino versus David de Gea. No. Sunday will be about him. The manager in the away dugout. Jose Mourinho. If Jurgen Klopp and his players can find a way to beat the United manager, then you really have to begin to believe this title drought can be snapped.
Eleven years. Eleven bloody years. Not since 2007 has Mourinho suffered defeat at Anfield. He's stopped winning runs. Ended momentum. And killed off title dreams. If this season is to be the one when a first Premier League crown is raised at Anfield, then beating Mourinho on Sunday will go a long way to instilling that belief for all those connected.
Yeah, it's been a litany of stalemates. Of bore draws. But that's Mourinho. No matter the feeling towards the Special One, the Kop knows, he's not one to lay down. He enjoys it. The mind games. The challenge. Klopp, after the last two seasons, will know. This isn't about what his players will face on the pitch. It's about what his opposite number will have planned.
At Old Trafford last season, Mourinho produced a masterclass. The best half of football seen by his United team over the three seasons he's been in charge. No-one saw it coming. Beat Klopp's gegenpresse with De Gea's kicking. Simply take it out of the equation. Use Romelu Lukaku to win the first ball. Marcus Rashford and Alexis Sanchez buzzing either side of him. It was simple. Genius. And had United two goals to the good before Klopp could come up with a counter plan. By the end of the half, United were taking the mick. Humiliating their visitors as a training ground routine - from one flank to the other - ended with Juan Mata all alone and hitting his bicycle kick the wrong side of Loris Karius' post.
Rashford, with a famous brace, took the headlines that day. But this was about Mourinho. He'd out-thought Klopp. Surprised him. Indeed, surprised the world with his approach.
Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City didn't do that to Liverpool last season. But Mourinho found a way, as he always seems to do against Liverpool.
Klopp will know this going into Sunday. Mourinho will have something up his sleeve. He's been bold this season, though with limited success. The three at the back. Scott McTominay at centre-half. He's been trying - and been hammered for it.
Not that this will concern him, "I think maybe its better to have lots of holidays in Barbados than being on touchline like we managers are". A sentiment Klopp will have a lot of sympathy for.
On paper it could be a massacre. As Steve McMahon, who was in that last title winning team of 1990, said, this Liverpool team are "head and shoulders" above what United are currently offering. Some of the stuff against Napoli on Tuesday was exhilarating. The sort of football United fans have long given up on seeing from their lot.
But that was against a Napoli that was wide open and needing to win. There's no all-or-nothing Champions League place up for grabs on Sunday. Just three points. Or in Mourinho's case, one point will do. Just don't get beat, that'll be the thinking...
Or will it? That's just it, we don't know. Klopp doesn't know. And while all the chat leading into the game will be about Paul Pogba and his (likely) benching, Mourinho will be scheming. Putting something together.
It could be helter-skelter. It could be sheer attrition. For Mourinho, both approaches have worked on Klopp in the past.
Bigger than City. Bigger than Spurs. Even bigger than Klopp. This is Liverpool versus Mourinho. Eleven years in the making. There's a lot of history there.
But such records are made to be broken. And come Sunday, if the home manager can end Mourinho's unbeaten streak, then yes, we can start "believing" that another record can fall dating back to the days of McMahon, Kenny Dalglish and Alan Hansen.
