Arne Slot has warned his Liverpool players they will need to stand up to the hostile atmosphere at Goodison Park on Wednesday night in the final Merseyside derby at Everton’s historic home.

While the Liverpool boss has never faced Everton before in his career, he is well versed in local derbies from his time at the Netherlands, watched back last April’s 2-0 loss at Goodison and saw the effects of a febrile atmosphere on Sunday as Liverpool crashed out of the FA Cup at the hands of Plymouth Argyle.

It’s why his message to Liverpool’s players ahead of the derby was to make sure they keep ‘cool heads’ while being ready for the ‘fight’ against an in-form Everton.

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“It’s probably an extra reason why the atmosphere will probably be even better than all the occasions before,” Slot said when asked about Liverpool’s final trip to Goodison. “I haven’t been to one before but people tell me that at Goodison Park, like at Anfield, it is always a fantastic atmosphere. The home fans are there to support their team and the away fans are mainly loud as well.

“It’s probably going to be a fantastic atmosphere and that’s never easy to play against because every single time they pass the halfway line or get a corner kick or anything happens then you have to be mentally really strong as an away team to resist all that.

“You have to still be focused on what you have to do: defending the corner kick, defending the set-piece and when you have the ball be as calm as you can in this fantastic atmosphere. It is not the first time these players are playing in an atmosphere like this, so I hope they can focus on what they have to do.

“But it’s not only tactically, you have to stand up to those emotions. I have noticed also in the Plymouth game that the intensity of the tackles, how aggressive they were, it was definitely a quality of their players but also because of the emotions in the stadium.

“We have to be up for that and I’ve seen the game from last season and we were quite ready because after 10 minutes the referee blew his whistle 11 times and 10 times in favor of Everton. The Liverpool players were ready to compete but every time it was a free-kick.

“I assume our players are ready for another battle tomorrow for the simple reason that they have been ready for the whole season and many of them are ready for this tie.

“Every time you play against a team that wants to fight with you,” Slot added. “That is almost every time we play against any opponent but maybe this one even more, you have to be ready for that, you have to run just as much, be just as intense in tackles, not going across the line but being cool enough to play a good and firm tackle.

“That is where it starts and nine of 10 times after 10 or 15 minutes a game settles down a bit and then you can start to think even more about playing football. But last season, in the first 10 minutes there were 10 free-kicks in favour of Everton and you know what they did with it, they brought them in every single time and I think that led to their 1-0. Cool head, but not cool legs.”