To some extent, Klopp got what he wanted on Tuesday. Anfield delivered the noise he had demanded. Liverpool won, 1-0, and took its place in the knockout rounds of the Champions League, once again ensuring that the Premier League has a full complement of four teams in the last 16 of Europe’s most exclusive club competition.

But this was not a night in Anfield’s grand old tradition. This was not the visit of Dortmund in 2016, when Liverpool needed three goals in half an hour to survive. It was not Olympiakos in 2005, when Steven Gerrard had to intervene in the dying minutes to send Liverpool through and mayhem swept through the Kop. This was not a victory for Anfield, and chaos. It was a victory for Liverpool, and control.

By any measure, Klopp’s team has made a remarkable start to the season. Its European form has been patchy — “not good enough,” as Virgil van Dijk, the defender, said on Monday — but it has been almost flawless in the Premier League.

It has not been beaten in 16 games. It has dropped points only away to Chelsea and Arsenal, and at home to Manchester City. Only four teams in English history — the history that starts in 1888, not the history that starts in 1992 — have had better records at the same stage. It sits top of the Premier League, ahead of City by a point.

And yet it has done so with as little fanfare as a team as widely supported, as keenly scrutinized and as intensely followed as Liverpool can manage. City helped, of course: Until its defeat at Chelsea on Saturday, its record had been even more impressive.

But Liverpool’s performances have contributed, too. This has not been the swashbuckling team that made it to the Champions League final last year, scoring bunches of goals in breathtaking surges. It has not asphyxiated its opponents with Klopp’s signature high press. It has not blown teams away. It is only a slight exaggeration to say it has managed to stay unbeaten for 16 games without actually appearing to play especially well.

Only, though, when judged against what it was, rather than what it is. This Liverpool is not that Liverpool. It is not swarming opponents because it is not trying to swarm opponents. It is not sweeping teams away in 10-minute spells because it is designed to pick them apart over 90. And it is not scoring great barrages of goals because it no longer needs to.