MIDDLESBROUGH welcome European champions Liverpool to Teesside this evening and Steve McClaren believes the Reds' eminent status should strike fear into the rest of the Premiership - including Chelsea.

Despite finishing a colossal 37 points behind the champions last season, McClaren is convinced Liverpool will be able to seriously bridge that divide after gaining a great degree of confidence from May's Champions League success.

Having made one of the greatest sporting comebacks of all time in Istanbul, coming back from three goals down at half-time to win on penalties, Liverpool supporters are now desperate to win the Premiership for the first time.

Chelsea's billions means they remain staunch favourites to defend their crown but McClaren - who experienced the high of winning the European Cup when he was assistant manager at Manchester United in 1999 - insists Rafael Benitez's men will be a different proposition this year.

"I witnessed what it did to Man United when they won it at first hand," said McClaren. "They had a fantastic belief the following season and I can see that happening to Liverpool, but hopefully not on Saturday. There was an invincibility about United that year, they won the league by about 18 points."

Boro have felt the brunt of Liverpool's new persuasive powers during the summer when they lost out to today's opponents in the battle to sign Bolo Zenden.

McClaren and the board had expected the Dutch midfielder to sign on for a third year but he set his sights on a move to Merseyside on a free transfer as soon as their interest became known.

Zenden looks set for a quick return to the Riverside Stadium today after recovering from a thigh strain - something that had looked like seeing him join another of Liverpool's summer buys, Peter Crouch, on the sidelines.

"You will see a totally different Liverpool this season. They are a lot stronger. They have bought well and improved the squad," said McClaren, who is close to a deal for Sporting Lisbon's Rudolph Douala.

"They have been playing with arrogance in pre-season and that comes from achieving and winning. If you look at the likes of Liverpool and Tottenham they have spent big this summer."

In fact Liverpool's spending has left Boro, normally successful in the transfer market during the close-season, in the shade.

The £9.3m forked out on Aiyegbeni Yakubu and Emanuel Pogatetz is more than most but McClaren would ideally have liked to have added at least two more faces before the curtain raiser.

Nevertheless the Boro boss is eyeing up improvement. He wants better than the seventh place.

"We know we need to add but we need to keep the squad together and fit," said McClaren, who believes his side would have finished even higher had his squad not been plagued by injuries. "We have to steer clear from injuries. We want to prevent them. We need to improve before the window closes.

"Top eight is the level we have reached over course of the past four years so we want to improve on that. It's been very frustrating not to add. Players coming here have to be better than what we have got."

McClaren suggested Mark Viduka is unlikely to start today despite edging closer to full match fitness having missed half of last season with hamstring trouble.

That means Yakubu and Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink start up front, while the boss also hinted he could be willing to tinker with his formation.

But Boro captain Gareth Southgate believes the squad will have to be patient with new signing Yakubu as he adapts to a change of scenery.

"Yakubu is a very powerful player. You can see by the size of him that his strength is a big asset," said Southgate. "When he gets chances he seems to take them. For us to find out all his strengths is tough at the moment because we need to find out what service he needs.

"There will be different demands made of him by joining a club challenging at the other end of the table rather than being lower down. It's not something that will happen overnight but it's nice to have someone with that quality coming in."

Southgate turns 35 next month and admits he will have to take time out during the next nine months or risk burn-out - as he found last season when injuries and a UEFA cup run led to his performances dropping below his usual high standard.

And he said: "Last year we played 50-plus games with a massive list of injuries so that was one of the most demanding seasons I have ever been involved in.

"You hope it won't be the same. I'm someone that likes to be out there every day of the week at my age. But I have to manage and play my matches a little differently.

"I had a great example set at Aston Villa by Paul McGrath. He physically couldn't train because of his knees.

"He spent most of his time in the gym and played on a Saturday. I'm fitter than what Paul was at that age but that tends to make you want to do more than you should be doing."