Even when Liverpool were four goals ahead, Leeds’ full-backs and centre-halves were following instructions to overlap at will. Liverpool knew what was coming, their players assuming funky positions to drag their man-markers to zones of maximum discomfort in the knowledge team-mates would take advantage of the gaps. Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz were one-on-one with a despairing full-back so often, it was almost inhumane on Stuart Dallas and Junior Firpo. It is no exaggeration to suggest Liverpool could have scored double-figures.

Leeds’ Premier League position is down to several mitigating factors. The absence of key players such as Patrick Bamford and Kalvin Phillips are too significant to ignore. There is too much to admire about how Bielsa’s team plays – their determination to entertain makes Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle United team of the mid-90s look more like a Roy Hodgson XI – to demand they radically change to survive. When the injured players return, Leeds will thrive against many Premier League opponents and ease away from their perilous position. 

Their flaw is Bielsa’s steadfast refusal to react to circumstances and change tack against superior opponents, especially now that every point is crucial and goal difference may be a factor come May.

“Of course I question myself,” Bielsa admitted after the Anfield thrashing.

“You ask why the things that are happening to us are happening. When a team goes through what we are going through it is only going to awaken doubts.”

Bielsa has too much credit in the bank at Elland Road to have his work there re-evaluated on the back of a recent, injury-hit run. But to preserve his legacy, the professor would be wise to take a lesson from some of his students.   

Bielsa’s meticulously prepared plan A may indeed be the work of a visionary. A true coaching genius knows when plan B is required, or at the very least plan A needs an urgent upgrade.