Look, I never said they were good coincidences, did I?

Liverpool keep falling into a trap whenever weaker teams give them time and space. That isn’t their cue to slow everything down. You play your own game. City will thrash Fulham in a fortnight. Where’s our killer instinct?

Salah’s greed was problematic all afternoon, Klopp hooking him in injury-time an absolute joke. The equaliser I almost can’t bear thinking about, even now. Why is Alisson trying to kick it when Van Dijk’s headed it back? Flea-brain or coward, I can’t decide which.

As chances to wrap it up were continually squandered, you know what’s coming. The penalty may be a gigantic relief, but you don’t always get those. Complacency and arrogance weren’t punished. This time… Ah well, top for a few weeks; time to recharge and formulate new strategies.

Was beating Bayern part of the plan? Letting City exhaust themselves while we put our feet up and prepare for sturm und drang in the league seemed the likelier option.

Klopp’s tetchiness over suggestions we abandon the Champions League should’ve been a clue. Principles over practicality; not something you hear often these days. We’re going for both, then? Clarion calls were never so loud nor so welcome.

Somewhat tediously, there was the predictable postmortem for any team we manage to beat in Europe; RIP Bayern, nice knowing you.

What Liverpool did to make them look bad hardly seems to matter. They played fearfully at Anfield too, when it looked to these pessimistic eyes that, with Van Dijk’s absence, an away goal was theirs for the taking.

Once we’d grabbed ours, a Mané masterpiece, they really got the jitters. Some of our first-half passing was sloppy, although former hero Steve Nicol went mad and called us “atrocious”. Punditry now prefers to adopt the unsubtle arts of inflammatory language and being noticed.

In the second half there was definite improvement, with the ball landing (and sticking) to feet more. The win felt almost inevitable, though we had no real right to expect it. German fear and our own performance made even voodoo-riddled loons like me think “you know what, we might actually be a decent side”.

The quarter-final draw was the preferred option, but any chance for Porto to avenge last year’s 5-0 drubbing shouldn’t be casually dismissed.

Targets always change mid-season, but anyone told in August the Reds would be in the title race and Champions League by April couldn’t have grumbled, surely?

City’s task next month could’ve been trickier, but it still looks a slog. There were signs of apprehension at Swansea. Rotation, by its very nature, is disruptive no matter who you’ve got on your bench.

Increasing our own fixtures may also expose certain deficiencies. Klopp probably does want to play Fabinho every time now but realises he simply can’t. The usual screech over team selection, ear-splitting when Lallana got a run against Burnley (then remarkably silent after he played well), resurfaced when Henderson started in Munich.

He didn’t last long, conjuring the ugly image of Liverpool ‘supporters’ cheering for one of their own getting injured. The internet’s got its qualities for sure, but sometimes when you lift the rock…

Milner hadn’t been a regular for a while but did well last Wednesday and got yesterday’s vital winner. One hopes Shaqiri is being saved for a title tilt, but it seems likelier Klopp’s gone off him completely.

There’s a difference between keeping Salah sweet and outright pampering him.

Klopp needs these two weeks to have a few stern words. He shouldn’t need to crack the whip, not with the possibilities on our horizon. They’re motivation all by themselves.