The game at Anfield presents McFarlane and his players with a chance to end our losing streak in the league and ensure we head into that Cup final in better spirits.

However, McFarlane stressed the Liverpool game is not simply an audition for the following weekend’s final. It is a longstanding rivalry anyway, and there are points up for grabs in our quest to qualify for Europe.

‘We haven't spoken about the Cup final,’ he said.

‘We're not looking that far ahead. We've spoken about what we have to improve from the previous game [against Nottingham Forest] and looked ahead to the next game.

‘Liverpool are a really good side with a lot of threats that we have to be aware of. We also have a lot of good players, and we're just focusing on ourselves at the moment and making sure that our performance levels are at a higher level than what they have been.’

McFarlane said he and his staff have watched lots of the Reds’ matches this season in preparation for the lunchtime kick-off on Saturday, including the reverse fixture which was won courtesy of Estevao Willian’s dramatic late goal.

The Brazilian is one of several attacking players unavailable to McFarlane. Pedro Neto and Alejandro Garnacho are doubts for the game, while Jesse Derry and Jamie Gittens are definitely ruled out. McFarlane acknowledged he may have to shake things up in that department on Saturday.

He said: ‘We're going to have to make up for some of the players we're missing in different ways, and in the way that we shape the team up, but I don't want to go into too much detail on that right now.

‘What I do know is that we've still got a lot of good players that can impact games.’