“We assess it day by day,” Lijnders said. Naby Keïta is sidelined as a result of Paul Pogba’s red-card offence at United but avoided serious injury. Jürgen Klopp will make changes in the Carabao Cup again when Liverpool travel to Preston on Wednesday, although Kaide Gordon, the teenager who made his debut in the third round at Norwich, is unlikely to have recovered from injury. Not only between the games but also between the seasons.” Changes After emotional periods, after a lot of finals, a lot of intense seasons, it’s good for them to have a break because if you want to reach consistency you have to respect the process of recovery. Sometimes improving is just going back to basics, and that’s what we did in pre-season. “But did we change anything? No, we always just want to improve. If you score in the right moments then these games – for example Man United – can happen. We said they look like raptors in Jurassic Park. “And then the quality of our front three. “It’s how we move the ball from out the back, it’s how we are protected, it’s the whole package that allows our front players to constantly get good positions to score. “You can never judge scoring just by the goals scored,” he said.

It is their highest combined total at this stage of a campaign and a by-product, Lijnders believes, of Salah and Mané having an extended rest and full pre-season. The humiliation of United took Liverpool’s goal tally to 41 from 13 matches this season, with Mohamed Salah (15), Roberto Firmino (6) and Sadio Mané (6) responsible for 27. Liverpool’s front three were “like raptors in Jurassic Park” against Manchester United on Sunday, according to assistant manager Pepijn Lijnders.

Jurassic park raptor