Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp admits addressing his players in midweek after a winless start to the season.
However, Wednesday's Kirkby meeting wasn't quite the full and frank 'discussion' you would imagine, for the simple reason that Klopp explained.
“There was no discussion. I was getting things off my chest. The good thing about this meeting is I feel much better after it!" he said with a smile, knowing how his words would be interpreted. “It is not that I shout at the players, not at all, it is about putting things in perspective, what we did well and what we didn't do well.
“Everything is judged, but in the end only one thing is important and that is what we think ourselves about it. We cannot do things to please the outside world, to make crazy challenges and get a red card. We never were that and we will never be that.
“For us and for me, it is clear what we have to do. I cannot go into detail but of course we talk about pretty much everything, especially the important things for us, and try to exclude the not so important stuff."
Explaining that it wasn't an attack on them, but more the benefit of his own experience, he said: “Yes, I can tell them things; I'm 55 and they are 30. I got washed with all kinds of water in my life, highs and lows, and it is all about how you deal with it.
“You always have to question yourself of course and what you make of it. The situation changes constantly, the perception from outside changes constantly, the pressure gets bigger, it is never the same. I don't want to leave the boys alone in a situation like this. It is just about showing perspective. There are a lot of things you can do.
“As a human being, even in a team sport, you deal with yourself first in a difficult situation but you don't forget you have also 10 players around who can help and you can help them as well." A win over Bournemouth would ease the clamour, but Klopp admitted he would have to do it with the same players who lost at Old Trafford, with none of his 10 absent players expected back from injury until next week at the earliest."