Sunday 2 April 2017 11:38, UK
Gary Neville said Liverpool's win over Everton was "vitally important" in the battle for the top four, even though it wasn't their best performance of the season.
The 3-1 victory saw Liverpool move into third above Manchester City, who face Arsenal on Nissan Super Sunday.
Sadio Mane, Philippe Coutinho and Divock Origi scored for the hosts, who now do not face any of the other top seven sides for the rest of the season.
"You look at the fixtures they have and it was a big one for Liverpool," said Neville on the Gary Neville Podcast.
"Looking at the Manchester City and Everton games either side of the break, four points would have been seen as success.
"If you look at the games they have left, they have got what you would say on paper is a more comfortable run-in than the rest of the sides around them. It wasn't impressive in the sense it was a brilliant performance but it was comfortable and vitally important."
After Mane scored the opener in the eighth minute, Liverpool were largely in control of the game.
Matthew Pennington equalised for Everton but the hosts quickly replied through Coutinho in the 31st minute.
"Coutinho has been struggling for form in the last couple of months but was back to his best," said Neville.
"That partly was contributed to by Everton's lack of attention where he played.
"Liverpool weren't at their best. I didn't expect them to be without Jordan Henderson and Adam Lallana…but Everton played right into their hands and weren't set up to nullify Liverpool's strengths.
"I expected more. I expected more concentration and more focus. Romelu Lukaku didn't deliver and you need the big players to deliver. You need your star players to turn up and Everton didn't have that today."
The only negative for Liverpool was losing Mane to injury, with Klopp confirming he will probably miss Wednesday's match against Bournemouth.
Neville said it would be a "big loss" if the Senegal international was out for a prolonged spell.
"If Mane was to be missing for a month it takes away a lot because he is different from the rest of their front players," he said. "The rest I wouldn't call manipulators of the ball, they live in pockets on the pitch whereas Mane beats players and goes beyond.
"He dribbles, he's a goal threat, he commits, he almost takes two players out of the equation, and we have seen earlier on in the season when he was away at the Africa Cup of Nations that they struggled without him."
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