One by one, the names were relayed and their many virtues extolled. From the "world class" number one to the "guy who just scored his 60th hat-trick", Jurgen Klopp spoke more positively about an old foe in four unbroken minutes than some of their fans have done all season.
'We don't face the teams who has problems,' Klopp warned. 'We face Manchester United.' Mind games? It would have been easy to draw that conclusion. But then you remembered that Klopp is not the kind of man who has ever got involved in psychological skirmishes before a big game and the point he was trying to make became apparent.