Gini Wijnaldum has explained how Liverpool are taking the FA Cup seriously this season - and revealed what happened during half-time at Villa Park.
The Premier League champions were given an almighty scare on Friday night before earning their place in the fourth round with a 4-1 win over Aston Villa.
Villa, forced to field a team of Academy players with the senior squad absent following a major coronavirus outbreak, were level at the break before the experience and greater fitness of a surprisingly strong Liverpool side told during the second half.
And Wijnaldum admits the Reds want to address an FA Cup shortcoming of having not progressed beyond the fifth round since Jurgen Klopp took charge more than five years ago.
“We said at the beginning of the season that we wanted to play for everything," said the Holland international.
“Of course it’s difficult to play everything with your strongest team because during the season you play so many games, especially now, and you have to rotate a lot.
“But I think we did well (against Villa) and hopefully we can do well in the next round because this is a competition we also want to win. We have won a lot but the FA Cup we haven’t won, so we want to do it.”
Sadio Mane headed the Reds in front early on but a poor first-half showing allowed Villa a deserved equaliser through 17-year-old Louie Barry.
Liverpool dominated the second half with Wijnaldum regaining the lead before further quickfire goals from Mane and Mohamed Salah.
And Wijnaldum said: “We stayed calm and we stayed calm in the dressing room (at half-time).
“We said we shouldn’t go crazy and shouldn’t lose confidence because for the first half an hour we did quite well and created chances but we didn’t score them. After that the counter-press was not that good so I think it was a deserved goal from them because we didn’t defend it well.
"At half-time we just changed a few things around.”
Before Wijnaldum's goal on the hour, Liverpool had scored just once in more than five hours of action having failed to register in recent Premier League visits to Newcastle United and Southampton.
Speaking to liverpoolfc.com, the midfielder added: “I think it was more the case that we didn’t create a lot of chances than scoring goals, because I think everyone – and also we are – is used to us scoring a lot of goals and used to us creating a lot of chances.
“But football is changing, teams are changing, teams are getting better, teams are analysing us so they also know our strengths and they have a gameplan.
"We just have to make sure that even if they have a gameplan we are still able to create chances, so those things can happen."
