ARNE Slot expects to face a "different" Newcastle United in next month's Carabao Cup final after Liverpool swatted the Magpies aside with relative ease on Wednesday night.
Goals from Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister secured a routine victory for Liverpool, who are now 13 points clear at the top of the Premier League.
It was a frustrating night for Newcastle, who sorely missed Alexander Isak and didn't manage a single shot on target.
But Slot insists he won't read too much into Newcastle's display ahead of next month's Wembley re-run.
"I don't think that means so much, because I saw a different Newcastle tonight [to the one] I saw a few months ago when we played them there," said Liverpool's boss.
"I don't know if that's for a reason, but normally I see them pressing 4-5-1 and now they press 4-4-2, so maybe they wanted to do things a bit differently. They rested - or he's injured, I don't know - but Isak wasn't there. Joelinton wasn't there.
"So I think we can expect something different in a few weeks. But probably we are rested a bit better as well, than we were in our fifth game in 15 days."
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Slot felt Liverpool showed the desire and hunger of title-winners as they moved another step closer to Premier League glory.
The Merseysiders had looked nervy in games against Everton, Wolves and Aston Villa earlier this month but doubts seem to have been swept aside after confident wins over Manchester City and now the Magpies.
Slot, who watched the game from the stands as he started a two-match touchline ban, said: “I think what impressed me most was the mental strength in both games because after Everton and Wolves, maybe after Villa a bit, people started to question us a bit.
“Normally when you get questions you see extra workrate, that is normal. But if you get a lot of compliments, eight out of 10 people get complacent. Only the ones that want to achieve something don’t, and that mentality of the two against 10 we saw tonight.
“They just found an extra gear to work even harder. We weren’t perfect but the mentality was great again, as was the squad performance – not just the team performance.”
Liverpool’s advantage has increased from seven points in the past week, thanks also to the dropping of five points by closest challengers Arsenal in their last two games.
Yet even with just 10 games remaining, Slot is not thinking about the title just yet and is already looking ahead to next week’s Champions League clash against Paris St Germain.
The Dutchman said: “I don’t know (about the title) because I don’t think that way.
“I think about PSG already and I watched them against City. I am impressed by the quality they have, they are on a similar run as we are, having hardly lost any games for a long time.
“That is my main focus. I’ll forget about the Premier League and the table for now, until the moment we’ve played PSG. Then I’ll think about the Premier League again and Southampton.”
