Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna admitted that Liverpool scoring early on against his side at Anfield through Dominik Szoboszlai saw all his best-laid plans thrown out of the window.

After just 11 minutes, Liverpool moved in front in the game and never looked back. By half-time, Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo had made it 3-0 before Gakpo added a fourth in the second half and Jacob Greaves got a consolation back late on.

"It was another tough game for us," McKenna told the BBC. "There was positivity in how we ended it. I didn't think first half we were under huge pressure but Liverpool are clinical and we didn't defend our box well enough.

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"It's come at a tricky stage of the season but we will take our lessons from it. Everyone comes with a plan but when they score a first goal like that it's really difficult. Credit to my players with how they stuck at it in the second half.

"We'll look back at it. We need to do some things better than we did in the first half. I know it's halfway through the season, but that's the first time that back four have been together since game six."

Ipswich lost 6-0 at home to Manchester City last weekend and needed to show some fight following that result. But once Liverpool moved in front, Arne Slot's side was in complete control.

"We stay very focused," Gakpo said. "We are there every day on the training field to keep improving ourselves. There is a long way to go. Step by step."

Liverpool.com says: Ipswich was not playing badly but this was a Liverpool team that never really got out of second gear, purely and simply because it didn't need to. For Liverpool, Gakpo helped send them on their way to a routine win which allowed some rotation in the second half when the likes of Jayden Danns and Wataru Endo came on to give some first-choice players a rest.