Jurgen Klopp was acutely aware of the significance of Saturday's win over West Ham.
As battling a victory that has been earned at Anfield in a long time, Sadio Mane's first-half finish was enough to separate the sides and take Liverpool within three points of Manchester City, prior to their hosting of neighbours United on Sunday afternoon.
And while Mane's goal took the overall tally of Liverpool's forwards to 52 this season, it was a triumph that was built more on the resilience and mentality of the team itself, particularly at the back.
"You cannot only win the games when you're flying," Klopp said after the game. "We had to dig really deep, which was what the boys did."
Liverpool have won seven successive games in the Premier League since that 2-2 draw with Chelsea at the turn of the year, a sequence that has catapulted them right back into the mix of a title challenge many thought was over with as 2022 rolled in.
That run has been underpinned by a settled defence that has conceded just two goals in that time.
It's far cry from 12 months ago when Fulham, who would eventually be relegated, pilfered a 1-0 win at an empty Anfield to condemn Liverpool to their sixth straight home defeat for the first time ever in 130 years of club history.
The returns of Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez, coupled with the seamless adaptation of £36million Ibrahima Konate have helped tighten up the defence.
And crucially, those combined elements have allowed Liverpool to play their natural high line.
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The comeback of Van Dijk, in particular, cannot be overstated here, either.
The Dutchman's uber-cool presence in the back four emboldens the rest to stick to the plan with Alisson Becker providing a world-class insurance policy as a sweeper 'keeper.
Van Dijk has now set a new Premier League record for unbeaten home games in the top flight, eclipsing Lee Sharpe's Manchester United run of 59 in the 1990s.
The £75m man has won 52 of those 60 games with just eight draws in among the scores of victories in Liverpool red.
The former Southampton centre-back's only defeat at Anfield, in fact, came when he visited as Saints player in November 2017.
Such has been the Netherlands captain's impact at Anfield, both before and after a career-threatening knee injury, that he must now be surely considered as one of the greatest centre-backs ever seen in the Premier League era.
"I didn't win anything just because of that statistic," Van Dijk says. "So it doesn't change me and it doesn't change the way I am thinking.
"I just want to win every game I play and I want to do that together with all the boys.
"So far, so good, but we just have to keep going but things like that change or affect me at all."
The tactic of pushing up the back four is one that is inherent with risk, of course.
Questions inevitably rain down whenever the offside trap is sprung by opposition attackers, such as Pablo Fornals, who should have beaten Alisson when going clean through in the first half on Saturday.
But in the main, the Reds' high line is a brave way of defending that Klopp feels is non-negotiable in his blueprint for success.
*RATE THE PLAYERS FOR THE WIN OVER WEST HAM:
Three offside 'goals' scored by Chelsea in last week's Carabao Cup final has been used as evidence, by some, as to just how dangerous a game Liverpool are playing now.
But the introduction of VAR has enabled the defence to operate without fear of human error, such as a linesman misjudging the break-neck speed of Premier League football.
The directive to raise a belated flag for Premier League officials may seem, at times, as though opponents are carving out good-quality chances against Klopp's side and the occasional furious reaction from the players does indicate their unhappiness with the directive.
But the reality is that offside calls should render those phases of attack as an irrelevance when the post-match analysis is undertaken on our television screens.
Liverpool have caught their opponents offside 116 times this season, a statistic that is far and away the highest in the top flight.
Second on that particular list is Manchester City with 68 prior to kick off at the Etihad on Sunday afternoon.
Those results are the work of hours of training ground drills and a built-in mentality to hold the line under the pressure of high, long balls in behind when it might seem the natural move to drop off a few yards to defend.
Again, it comes down to bravery and trust in the system itself and while it has its detractors for how it has altered football as a spectacle, VAR certainly aids the Liverpool cause for this particular way of playing.
Only Chelsea and City have conceded less than Liverpool's number of 20 goals this season and a key element behind that is likely to be the largely settled nature of the back five.
It is the choice of Konate or Joel Matip that is the main decision for Klopp to wrestle with when everyone is fit and ready.
Konate has adjusted superbly to life in England, yet to taste defeat in 18 games as a Liverpool player that included the 5-0 hammering of Manchester United back in October.
That run is the lengthiest unbeaten start to a player's career at Anfield since Ray Houghton went 23 games without defeat in the 1987-88 campaign for the Reds.
A popular member of the squad behind the scenes, the 22-year-old is viewed within the Anfield ranks as the long-term future of the club's defensive makeup.
It was his pace and confidence in possession that convinced Liverpool the Frenchman was the ideal man to fill the gaping need for a defender last summer.
The ability to learn from the likes of Van Dijk, Matip and Gomez, who is two years his senior, is also an important factor behind Konate's excellent start to his long-term Anfield career.
Klopp says: “Our centre-halves have a sensational relationship so they all learn from each other and help each other.
"They don’t play other positions, apart from maybe Joey a bit at right-back, so that helps and they are so close.”
Van Dijk adds: "I think the four of us are keeping each other as sharp as we can."
One player whose defensive contributions have, rightly or wrongly, been questioned at times is Alexander-Arnold, whose position as a 'right-back' is limited merely to where his name is placed on a pre-match pitch graphic.
The 'defender' - who registered his 16th assist of an incredible personal campaign on Saturday - can be seen pitching up in the centre of midfield just as much as he does on the right side of the back four.
It is not an issue over a lack of positional sense, though, Alexander-Arnold has been actively encouraged to move further forward and more centrally in an effort to keep opposition teams guessing and Liverpool knee-deep in goalscoring opportunities.
It was a tactical tweak that was brainstormed during the club's pre-season tour of Austria when Klopp sat down with his assistants Pep Lijnders and Peter Krawietz to keep Liverpool "unpredictable" after maintaining largely the same squad for four years.
After clearing one off the line in Saturday's win after setting up Mane for what was the winning goal, Alexander-Arnold was left to reflect on another good day at the office.
"I try to contribute as much as I can to the team," he said. "We all want to help win games for the team and I am happy to be able to continue.
"Both me and Andy (Robertson) tried to get forward when we had the chance, but to keep a clean sheet was our aim and we have been able to do that over the last few weeks.
"Being able to clear one off the line was great as it helped us keep that clean sheet."
His 16 assists is now a new personal record for a player who continues to reinvent the perception of how a modern full-back thrives in football in 2022.
"He’s been incredible," says Andy Robertson. "The goalline clearance was special, [he was] slightly out of position to start if I’m going to be critical but his recovery run was incredible - the speed and determination to get back on the line.
"To be honest, we speak a lot about assists but for me that is the most important thing he has done today. The assist was a mishit shot! He’s admitted that at least!
"Look, 16 assists on the season is incredible but today his most important contribution is the clearance off the line because that kept us in the lead and kept us 1-0 up when really it should’ve been a goal."
Also speaking after Saturday's game, Klopp said of Alexander-Arnold: "If he couldn't defend, he couldn't play. At least not in this position.
"He has improved in all departments and of course in defending as well, but he is young so he can still improve and he has to improve.
"But yes, his defending is not a problem that we have.
"So when you see him playing, we have helped him a little bit with positioning and stuff like this and we have tried to bring him into positions formation-wise to where he can be influential.
"But of course it is all about him, his skillset, his quality and his right foot."
The critiques around Alexander-Arnold are perhaps borne from what some traditional football watchers perceive full-backs to be.
The 23-year-old is not a defender who tackles aggressively near his own area or overlaps forwards in every attack he is involved in.
His anticipation and pressing are crucial to him winning the ball as high up the pitch as possible to keep Liverpool on the front foot, which can sometimes mean, quite naturally, that there are gaps at the back on the right.
That comes back to the same point about Liverpool's high line; it is the courageous approach needed for a system that views the reward as greater than the risk.
The questions will of course continue to be asked whenever goals are conceded or chances are given up, but the proof is in the pudding as far as Klopp is concerned with his defensive output.
