A run of three successive clean sheets made Simon Mignolet feel superstitious ahead of Sunday's season finale against Middlesbrough.

The Liverpool goalkeeper’s gloves were match-worn to the degree that he was ready to swap them for a new pair – but, with recent games in mind, decided otherwise and promptly recorded another shutout as a top-four finish was secured with a 3-0 win.

Mignolet told Liverpoolfc.com: “Before the game I was thinking of changing my gloves because they have run out a bit, but I said ‘No, I can’t do that.’

“And luckily it paid off. Now we can celebrate finishing in the top four.

“I’m pleased with how I have performed individually and together with the team. Keeping those clean sheets was very important in the last few weeks, to give us that platform and basis to win games.

“We have learned a lot, especially because the clean sheets came against teams who we struggled against a bit at the beginning of the season. We learned how to deal with that.”

The Belgian stopper was part of the previous Reds team to play at Champions League level, in 2014, when a group-stage exit could not be avoided under Brendan Rodgers.

With a play-off to come in August to reach the last 32 of Europe’s elite club competition, Mignolet acknowledged that it’s imperative Liverpool take the positives of this term and build on them.

“We’ve got a chance now for next season to show what Liverpool is about – to fight at the top in England but also in Europe,” he added.

“Everybody in the dressing room is very hungry for success and we’ve got that platform to start from next season onwards. We’ll make sure we recover well in the off-season and then we’ll prepare ourselves in pre-season to get firing.

“We have learned a lot since the manager arrived. We can take a lot of that into next season, which can be very exciting.”