The Liverpool legend Mark Lawrenson said what many people were thinking in the build-up to the first leg between Barcelona and Liverpool ; that the Reds have got better without Philippe Coutinho.
"The sale of Coutinho was fantastic business, and while he was a very, very good player for Liverpool, I don't think he was as good as people were making him out to be, and they've kicked on," Lawrenson told Mirror Sport .
"If he was still at Liverpool I don't think Coutinho would have done the tracking back that the front three do.
"And that's even better for the manager that he's got courage in his own conviction that, as good as he was, maybe doesn't fit my system. So well done to him."
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Well done indeed.
Because if the 3-0 defeat at the Nou Camp wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement for how Jurgen Klopp has moulded Liverpool even further in his image in the Brazilian's absence, then the 4-0 win at Anfield on Tuesday night certainly was.
And now while the club have regularly been accused of living in the past, this is a Liverpool that don't look back, not even to the recent days of Coutinho or Luis Suarez.
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They simply don't need the Brazilian, and neither will Barca soon by the looks of it.
As in the first leg against his former side, he left the field to be replaced by Nelson Semedo after an hour. And as in the first leg you'd forgotten that he was on the pitch long before then.
Catalan publication Sport gave Coutinho a 0/10 in their match ratings, and ESPN have now cited a club source who is adamant he will be sold in the summer.
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"Coutinho is not a Barcelona player, that's been made clear," ESPN claim the source said after the Anfield debacle.
"He has added nothing. He will leave in the summer."
He certainly won't be coming back to Liverpool.
