Liverpool's honesty in the wake of the disappointing 4-1 loss to Arsenal on Saturday helped the team come together for Wednesday night's FA Cup win over Blackburn Rovers.

The Reds players and coaching staff had a meeting after their poor performance in north London which manager Brendan Rodgers believes helped them all pull in the same direction to beat Rovers 1-0 at Ewood Park which has sent them through to a semi-final meeting with Aston Villa at Wembley.

"You could see that tonight," he said after the triumph in Lancashire.

"A lot was made of that, but I'm a coach who speaks openly with players. Part of the coaching philosophy is about reviewing and reflecting on performance.

"It's something we've done all year, even when we were winning games. That analysis provides us with the lever to move forward: how can we be better? How can we improve?

"Because we lost a couple of games, there was a lot made of that meeting, but that review is very, very important for how we want to work. If you don't review and analyse your performance, how can you improve and be better?

"I think you saw the outcome of that. The players were very focused. We made points in that [meeting] about how we can improve our performance level, we agree on it, we commit to it and we move forward."