Juergen Klopp on Daniel Sturridge

At home they are six points off the top of the table – four off the top four – meaning they are certainly in contention for the Champions League places having got the most hard of their away games out of the way.

“It was good news for the big Liverpool family”, the German told reporters.

“When we finished second in the league under him, they loved Rodgers”.

“He’s a top player and we need him. We just need to keep doing well”.

“We played well at Liverpool”. If they give him (Klopp) two players in the transfer window, if he gets a couple of the lads who are injured back into the side and Sturridge gets fit.

They don’t come much tougher than this and, while we have the quality to cause an upset, I can’t see us getting anything other than a defeat from our trip to the Etihad.

Liverpool can climb back into the upper echelons of the Premier League with Daniel Sturridge and Jordan Henderson back in the side.

“Football is not a sport where you can only play one way”, Klopp added.

Swansea livened up in the game’s final minutes, as Bafetimbi Gomis and Jefferson Montero had efforts on goal block, before Ashley Williams headed over the crossbar from a corner.

“We’ve got a big enough squad now to deal with a good cup run and that’s what we want to do”.

“We were deserved winners”.

The important thing will be to put in a performance we can take pride in and use it as a platform for the games over the Christmas period.

“It is the first competition you can win this season and no-one will be complaining if we are sat there in February or March whenever the final is with a trophy in the cabinet with plenty more games to go”.

He said: “The people who have come in have performed really well, considering they’ve been out for a significant amount of time”.

Monk is a bit like his team at the moment – he can’t win – whatever he says.

The triumph over Swansea resulted in the Reds winning two successive league matches for the first time since the opening two games of 2015/16. “This wasn’t our best performance but it was our best performance with a strong wind I’ve seen until now!”

Liverpool’s Jordon Ibe (right) and Swansea City’s Neil Taylor battle for the ball during the Premier League match at Anfield.

Quizzed as to whether he feels his side are building momentum, Klopp replied that he maybe should, but doesn’t, because they play again so quickly – which he called ” the problem”.

“We have to analyse our game, find out what we can use for Southampton, what we should change, fly back from Southampton and fly to Newcastle”.