Jurgen Klopp was keen to keep standards high at Anfield regardless of the ridiculous scoreline his Liverpool side had already built up by the time Andy Robertson paused for a stoppage in play in the second-half of the 7-0 win over Manchester United.
The Scot came over for a drink and was spotted receiving instructions from the German, with the latter duly revealing that he’d advised his fullback ‘we have to keep playing’.
“What did I say? I’m pretty sure it was about ‘we have to keep playing’… yes, that was it,” the 55-year-old told reporters in his post-match presser (as relayed online by liverpoolfc.com).
“When you get a bit more dominant result-wise or whatever and it’s not that settled yet, you don’t use the patterns then anymore because you don’t need to.
“But the patterns we had today were exactly the things which caused United the problems and I didn’t see any reason why we should not do that after 4-0.
“It was not about scoring another three; I didn’t tell him, ‘Go and score another three.’
“Not at all, I was absolutely fine with the result – I wanted us to understand even more that the things we had to do tonight were the right things and so you have to keep doing it.”
With the scoreline then at 4-0 during the brief touchline chat, it’s clear that it had a positive impact on the remainder of the encounter with the Red Devils as the hosts went on to add another three goals to their haul.
The hope will be now that we can build on such an iconic performance against our arch rivals and keep up momentum in the English top-flight amid our ongoing bid to secure top four football.
That certainly looks a very tangible possibility for us now sitting only three points behind fourth-placed Tottenham with a game in hand to play.
Whether our domestic form carries into Europe beyond our next meeting with bottom-place Bournemouth is another matter entirely, though our priorities simply shouldn’t change whilst Champions League qualification is far from being guaranteed still at this point in time.