'That's what the boss wants from us'
Mike Marsh considers Liverpool's performance throughout the 5-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur to be the benchmark for the style of football Brendan Rodgers wants his team to produce on a regular basis.
Plaudits for the Reds have been seemingly endless since the display at White Hart Lane last weekend and the first-team coach insists that it was the best performance over the full 90 minutes the team have produced under Rodgers' tutelage.
He told Liverpoolfc.com: "The players are buzzing. We came back from a difficult game with a really positive result and all the players and staff are in good spirits and everyone is feeling good about themselves.
"I wouldn't say we were taken by surprise as we know we have got a decent side but I think the margin of the victory possibly surprised us. We knew we had it in us to go there and win, and to score five goals and keep a clean sheet was a great result.
"We had gone into that on the back of two games when we had scored four or more goals at home, so if you take out the Hull performance we are in a good vein of form.
"I think that performance was as near as to what the manager wants us to be over the 90 minutes.
"That is as well as we have played under the manager over 90 minutes and we pressed well, with and without the ball, and we kept it well and we were very good in the attacking third, very creative and we were clinical in our finishing."
The victory was made that extra bit sweeter by the fact that the quintet of strikes were spread around the team - with Jon Flanagan, Jordan Henderson and Raheem Sterling all on the mark.
For Marsh, goals from all over the park will be a vital element if Liverpool are to achieve their top-four objective come the end of the campaign.
He added: "It's great for them to get on the scoresheet. We had a chat not so long ago with the players about other players getting on the scoresheet and sharing the load with Luis and Daniel, and it's important we get goals from other areas.
"Raheem has chipped in with a couple and Jordan has also been on the scoresheet. Flanno scored and could have got another one, so it's great when they score and it takes the pressure off other players in the team."
Liverpool face Cardiff City at Anfield on Saturday lunchtime knowing that a victory will take the Reds to the top of the Barclays Premier League.
While Marsh acknowledges there is still a long way to go, he accepts the fact that returning to the summit before Christmas would be a major confidence booster.
The coach said: "It doesn't really mean anything besides it being a great confidence boost for the players and the supporters over Christmas, because there's 22 games to go.
"It's a great achievement at this stage of the season to get around the top places as it is where we want to be, but ultimately it's where we want to be in May - that's what counts.
"There are six or seven teams competing for the title and the Champions League. We are one of them sides so we'll see where we finish but we want to compete with the others.
"We are two points off the top of the table at the moment so if we finish in the top four then that will be great, but ultimately we would like to finish on top."
Liverpool last crossed swords with Cardiff in the dramatic 2012 Carling Cup final, when the Reds triumphed on penalties, and Marsh saw enough that day to know the challenge posed by the Welsh side.
He added: "They gave us a real tough game at Wembley and could have won it. You could see they were a really good side and they signed well during the summer and got promoted, so they are doing very well."