It was lunchtime on February 4 and Jurgen Klopp, fresh from an unexpected purchase in the January sales, was doing his best to keep expectations in check.
'Let me say it like this,' Liverpool's manager began. 'If Luis Diaz would now come here, on to the football pitch, and immediately be at his absolute best and playing better than all the others that would be really strange. We (as a group) have worked together for a while. It needs time.'
Klopp's predictions about players aren't usually wrong but this one, about his recruit from Porto, has proven way off target.