Jones Plots Bayern Downfall

Phil Jones is relishing pitting his wits against Champions League holders Bayern Munich in the "biggest game of the season" on Tuesday night.

The Reds welcome Pep Guardiola's Bundesliga champions to Old Trafford for what promises to be another emotionally-charged evening in Manchester.

"It’s always nice to win and to get back to winning ways," Jones said after the 4-1 defeat of Aston Villa. "It was important to do that ahead of what is probably the biggest game of the season for us, against Bayern Munich in the Champions League.

"We will study them, I am sure, see what they are good at and try to exploit any weaknesses they have. Listen, we are realistic and know how difficult the game is going to be. We know how well they are playing, they are in form and have won the league with seven games to go. But who knows? It is the Champions League, it is a home tie at Old Trafford and if we get the crowd behind us then you just never know.

"I think if we were top of the league, Bayern would still have been favourites because they have got a superb team full of individual class. We have got to work on how to beat them."

Jones, who played at centre-half in the first period on Saturday before switching to right-back after Rafael went off injured, was impressed with the support received against Villa, particularly coming on the back of a 3-0 derby defeat to Manchester City.

"The fans have stuck with us throughout the season and they deserve an enormous amount of credit for the support they have shown," he stated. "Hopefully they can keep doing that.

"We have not done anywhere near as well as we would have liked this season but we can only stick together, keep doing the right things and it will change. When you suffer a defeat like the one against Manchester City, the first thing to do is leave everything in the changing room. There is no point in dwelling on defeats like that because you could be dreaming about it for months to come. The best thing to do was to let it go. Obviously, we were all bitterly disappointed but we had to move on quickly and pick ourselves up."