The fact that a Champions League quarter-final does not represent the biggest game of Liverpool's week tells you all about how high the stakes are at Anfield right now. But while many have already earmarked the Reds as semi-finalists for the third time under Jurgen Klopp, given their 3-1 first-leg lead against Benfica in Lisbon last week, the manager himself is typically not allowing complacency to set in.
"The next game has absolutely no influence on the line-up [tonight], but the last game obviously has," he said in reference of the two matches against Manchester City either side of Wednesday's second leg.
With a healthy advantage established at Estadio da Luz and with an FA Cup semi-final against their great rivals City to come on Saturday, it is easy to see why some would suggest the weekend's trip to Wembley is the most significant.
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But it is not just the following few days that have Klopp's attention right now. While a manager's typical response would have you believe they are not looking beyond the very next game, the veil slipped in his pre-match press conference on Tuesday.
"You cannot go for four trophies, you are part of four competitions and we are thankfully good enough this year not to go out early," Klopp said before taking aim. "But the fixture list we have now is [about] getting through. We play [on Wednesday] and that is the only thing I am concerned about.
"It's Benfica, then we play Saturday against Manchester City because of the success we've had. That would usually have been Aston Villa, it might have been Saturday or Sunday, I don't know.
"Then we play Manchester United and Everton and then if we get through (against Benfica), we have a (Champions League) semi-final and then BT and the Premier League thought they would give us Newcastle away at 12.30pm!
"All these things; the schedule and how people use the fame at the moment [thinking] 'Liverpool is hot at the moment' I couldn't care less. I know I am angry, but it's just not OK."
It was a clear indication that while minds are focused on what is next up at Liverpool right now, their tilt at an historic, unprecedented quadruple is being weighed up against the obstacles in that path.
Klopp has never been backwards in coming forwards in his opposition to 12.30pm kick-offs, so it is no real surprise to see him offer his bemusement and, by his own admission, anger at that trip to Newcastle on April 30.
The game arrives just days after what will be the first leg of the semi-final, should Benfica be negotiated, but given April is also a month that includes meetings with United and Everton as well as the aforementioned tussles with City, Klopp will feel his side could use every advantage they can get, however minor.
He added: "If we play a Champions League semi-final...if we find another league in the world and another broadcaster who thinks to put the one team who is in the semi-final, and it might be two or three [from England], at a 12.30 kick-off on a Saturday, it is like a little stick between the legs. It is like what!? What are you doing!?"
With the first leg of a potential semi-final to be played on Wednesday April 27, a Saturday lunchtime follow up in the Premier League will be the last thing Klopp will want to be confronted by, even if there is the small mercy of the European fixture being at Anfield.
The Reds boss' rage against the scheduling machine is still fresh in many minds after he took BT Sport on live on air after a Saturday lunchtime draw at Brighton days after a Champions League defeat at home to Atalanta in November 2020.
This type of problem is evidently part and parcel of chasing every piece of silver on the horizon, so there will be few who will have sympathy for a Liverpool team who could make history in the coming weeks.
From the Reds' perspective then, they must continue to leave no stone unturned to give themselves every possible bit of help in this unique pursuit.
