Arne Slot confessed he disregarded the counsel of his performance team concerning Florian Wirtz as the Liverpool playmaker excelled in a 2-0 triumph over West Ham United.
The Germany international had been absent from the previous two fixtures due to injury after returning from the international break carrying a problem. However, he was reinstated to the starting XI at the London Stadium as strikes from Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo secured a crucial triumph for the Premier League champions.
Wirtz arguably delivered his finest showing in the Premier League to date following his transfer from Bayer Leverkusen during the summer, operating in an attacking midfield position with Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister providing support in the middle of the park.
Slot was hesitant to lavish excessive praise upon the No. 7 but expressed satisfaction with his contributions, disclosing he chose to ignore the recommendations of his fitness coaches, who believed a substitution was required before the eventual 75th-minute change for Curtis Jones.
"The team played a very good game," the Liverpool head coach said said.
"Recently I've been asked a lot about individuals when maybe they've played a game not of their usual standards and I've pointed out the team every single time.
"After a very positive performance from Florian, I can acknowledge that but I also want to emphasise the team performance was much better.
"We tried to create an extra midfielder and he was very important for us to find that extra midfielder every time.
"He was good when he made a dribble, he was good with his one-touch passes, he played one ball to Cody, which then doesn't lead to a shot, but we had many of those moments and he was part of many of them.
Florian Wirtz brings the ball down while playing for Liverpool against West Ham.
Florian Wirtz impressed for Liverpool against West Ham. (Image: Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
"Performance staff were constantly telling me 'he needs to go out' because he'd be out for one-and-a-half weeks and had only trained once, so to a certain extent it was maybe a bit of a risk to keep him in the team, but some situations ask for an exception, and today was one of them."
The Reds opened the scoring when Isak coolly slotted home his maiden league strike for Liverpool following his switch from Newcastle United on transfer deadline day.
Slot commented: "That is also a bit unfair to him (to say the goal was a relief). Normally, as a No.9, in general, he plays more minutes than I have played Alex now because of the obvious reasons.
"Even today, I had to take him off after 68 minutes. He has played a lot of games, but in terms of minutes, not so much.
"It's very important for us as a team that we went 1-0 and important for him because it was his third chance of this game and I don't think there was much more than 10 minutes left in him.
"To score just before you come off is important for us and him."