Reds find it is good to talk

purely professional,” said Lallana, below. “There is no harm in reminding each other what we need to do and what we want from each other.

“It was the team captain who got us together in the dressing room at Melwood. It wasn’t just him who spoke, the senior players spoke, non-senior players, everyone.

“Sometimes it doesn’t hurt, not to hear a few home truths, but to just speak about it. Yes, we are in a difficult place and at times it feels like it is us against the world when things aren’t going well. This run we’ve been on has brought us closer and from that meeting it felt like, ‘right we are all in it so let’s dig deep’.” After 10 matches in 34 days, from Sunderland at home on January 2 to Hull away on February 4, Klopp faces just five in the next 47 days before the derby against Everton on April 1. “Now we are in preseason. We will use this break and will go again and again and again,” said Klopp. “If we have made some mistakes we already know it but we can only sort it out at the end of the season.”

Klopp perhaps merits his bit of sunshine more than most after dealing with questions about the implosion of their season and his methodology with good humour in January.

Georginio Wijnaldum certainly thought so. “If a manager says the same [as the club’s critics] that the players are ‘not good enough’ that can kill a team’s confidence,” he said. “He believes in us and I don’t think he just said it to keep our confidence, he truly believes it as well. That gave us a good feeling.”

LIVERPOOL (4-3-3):