Georginio Wijnaldum is the footballer who doesn’t like watching football. He will not watch next summer’s World Cup now Holland are not in it and he has not even watched a re-run of the seven goals Liverpool buried past Spartak Moscow on Wednesday night.

‘I find it strange seeing myself on television,’ he said with a sheepish smile. ‘I don’t like it. I don’t really watch football much.’

Sometimes, though, the Liverpool midfielder has no choice. Modern football is built around video analysis. And it is the uncomfortable session in the dark of the Melwood TV room after October’s 4-1 drubbing at Tottenham that Wijnaldum feels may have turned around Liverpool’s season.

Liverpool ace Georginio Wijnaldum has reflected on the turning point of his side's season

Jurgen Klopp’s team have won seven and drawn two of nine games since that horror show and Wijnaldum said: ‘That room was a really painful place to be that day. How we defended was painful also. But what the manager made us watch was the truth and we had to look in the mirror.

‘It was a good thing as we learned from it. It won’t happen again.’

Wijnaldum was talking ahead of Sunday’s derby against Everton at Anfield. ‘It is Everton’s biggest game of the season,’ he said, without meaning to be provocative. ‘It is one of our biggest games.’

Having scored seven in the Champions League on Wednesday and five at Brighton in the Premier League last Sunday, Liverpool are flying. Ten of those 12 goals — in fact 22 of their last 26 — have been scored by Liverpool’s Fab Four: Philippe Coutinho, Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane. As such, it is tempting to ask Wijnaldum if he feels a little like the fifth Beatle.

But to do so would be to disrespect the role this disarming, cheerful Dutchman plays for Klopp’s team and also the way footballers are encouraged to view things at Anfield.

Wijnaldum revealed how Jurgen Klopp made players watch re-runs of the Tottenham drubbing

Asked if the four players are ready to be accepted as true greats of the game, Wijnaldum’s answer is honest. ‘They can be a high level but you can only really say it if they have done it for a long time, not only for a few games,’ he said.

‘We have to see. Everyone knows they are wonderful and world-class, but we as a team have to help them show they are world-class players every game.

‘The way it is now, they get all the credit and the glory from outside, but if you make a mistake at the back you get criticism. But where is the criticism when we don’t score? Nowhere.

‘So here we work together. We defend as a group and that starts up front. On Wednesday, OK they all scored, but the defence also did a good job. Nobody will say anything about that when it’s good, only when it’s bad. That’s something I don’t like in football.’

Wijnaldum has only scored once this campaign, but did contribute the crucial first goal against Middlesbrough at the end of last season that enabled Liverpool to clinch the fourth Champions League spot on an Anfield Sunday when things had appeared to be going wrong. ‘That was a beautiful moment,’ he said.

He is yet to score away from home for Liverpool and he did not manage that either for Newcastle, whom he joined from PSV Eindhoven in 2015.

The Dutchman speaks with Sportsmail's Football Editor Ian Ladyman at Melwood

Liverpool were at their lowest ebb when they were humiliated by Tottenham back in October

Wijnaldum seems unconcerned by that but was interested to hear Brighton manager Chris Hughton had suggested Liverpool’s attack could prove more potent than Manchester City’s by the end of the season.

The 27-year-old played as an emergency central defender for the first time in his career that day on the South Coast, but added: ‘Is that what he said? It’s a good compliment as everyone knows how good City are. Yeah, we can do it but we have to show it more. We should not be as far behind as this (14 points).

‘We have given games away and City have played fantastic. They have scored a lot of goals in the last minute and the luck they have had in some games we haven’t had. But they deserve to be where they are and we deserve to be where we are.’

Improvement is a theme of our conversation and it is clear Wijnaldum thinks there is some way to go for himself and this team. He chose Liverpool over Tottenham in the summer of 2016 after meeting Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino.

‘The first two questions Klopp asked me were not about football and I liked that,’ he said. ‘He asked about my family and my relationship with them. It was nice.’

A keen child gymnast, Wijnaldum was forbidden from pursuing that as a career by his grandmother Francina, who was his guardian.

Klopp soon stuck the boot into his side and made them watch re-runs of the Spurs capitulation

Wijnaldum starred recently as Liverpool smashed Spartak Moscow by seven goals at Anfield

Turning instead to football, Wijnaldum made his debut for Feyenoord when he was 16 and still at school, before moving to PSV where he won the 2015 league title.

He was part of the Holland team who reached the last four of the 2014 World Cup and his take on why his country has subsequently fallen off the football map is interesting.

‘The first problem was that Louis van Gaal left (for Manchester United),’ he said. ‘He was good for the team as he watched every single thing that we did.

‘Guus Hiddink is great but he gave us more freedom and we didn’t know how to deal with that. If you have young players, it’s good to have a manager like Van Gaal telling you what to do.’

On the touchline at Anfield on Sunday, another boss who likes to micro-manage will watch over his players as Liverpool seek to continue their explosive form.

The departure of Louis van Gaal from the national set-up hindered Holland, admits Wijnaldum

Everton manager Sam Allardyce will not allow his team to be turned over like some have in recent weeks, but it could still be a long afternoon for those in blue.

‘I believe we can beat anybody and believe we can get better,’ Wijnaldum said. ‘We can be better than on Wednesday. We scored seven goals but it was not a perfect game.

‘It can get better even than that. I know it can.’