James Milner has saluted the extraordinary efforts Jurgen Klopp went to in order to rejuvenate his Liverpool squad after the 2016 Europa League final defeat to Sevilla.
After beating Manchester United, Borussia Dortmund and Villarreal along the way to the showpiece final in Basel, the Reds faltered against Unai Emery's Sevilla side despite taking the lead through an exquisite piece of play from Daniel Sturridge midway through the first half.
An equaliser just seconds after the restart from Kevin Gameiro was followed by a quick-fire brace from Coke Andujar, which would resign the Reds to a second cup final defeat of the 2015-2016 campaign after losing to Manchester City in the League Cup in February.
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It meant that as well as missing out on the riches of winning UEFA's secondary competition, Klopp's men also missed out on a Champions League place for the 2016-2017 season, having finished the Premier League campaign in eighth position.
But despite the blow of suffering back-to-back cup final defeats in such a short space of time, Milner has revealed how Klopp immediately sought to galvanise his side after the defeat in Switzerland.
"I think a few people had a few drinks to drown their sorrows and sat there sad, and then he [Jurgen] spoke," said Milner, speaking on the We are Liverpool podcast. "He wanted to get us up and sing We Are Liverpool and I was like 'Not a chance I'm singing that, gaffer'. He come over a second time and I think the third time he came over and was like 'I'm your F*****g manager, get up and we're doing this' and we all got up and sang We Are Liverpool together.
"It was the last thing you wanted to be doing, I hadn't had any alcohol! But he was right, what he said, that togetherness is the first step of bouncing back"
Milner added: "I mean he's got that personality, hasn't he? I think the first year we lost at Watford away 3-0 and it was the night of the Christmas party and he was like 'One thing you need to learn about what we do here is when we train, we train 100%. When we play, we play 100% and when we party, whether we've lost 3-0 or not, we party 100%. Tonight is for the Melwood staff, this is the night for them. They work hard for us.'"
Speaking beforehand, Milner discussed Liverpool's inconsistencies during the early days of the German's reign and revealed that the Reds boss had tasked the squad with not being unnerved by the club's history but instead being able to use it to achieve their own era of success.
"When I signed, I'd been on the right side of pipping Liverpool to the title a couple of years before and there was still a massive hangover," said Milner. "It was in loads of conversations every day of the year, 'The year we nearly won the league' so many times it came up and I think that was a big problem.
"I think that was a big hangover and we were so close and it didn't happen, then, obviously, the new manager comes in and the dressing room changed a lot, and certain players. He [Jurgen] was very strong in [telling us] we had to make our own history because when you sign for Liverpool, it's such a massive club and the history is incredible and you're expected to win things, but that should be used as like a boost.
'I'm playing for Liverpool', 'This is Liverpool', 'We are Liverpool'. Use that as opposed to, as the manager said, carrying it around in a backpack as if you're playing with that weight on your shoulders. That was the biggest part of the journey at the start, we have to make our own history here and we have to talk about this is a successful era that we started and played together.
"It clicked quite quickly. How I remember, sort of, is we go to a place where we could beat anyone on our day but then literally the next week we could play and be absolutely horrendous, there was just no consistency. That developed to a point where we were consistent, getting to finals but not quite getting over the line and then you get that first one and it's like bang, we've won something together."
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