There was something wholly apt to see Darwin Nunez sat helpless with tears in his eyes on the bench as Uruguay slumped dramatically out of the World Cup on Friday.
After all, the national team seemed simply unable to extract the best out of the Liverpool striker.
How to capitalise on Nunez's undoubted qualities is a poser with which Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp have been grappling ever since the striker's move to Anfield in the summer.
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Of course, being transferred into a new-look attack in a new league in a new country while trying to learn a new language goes some way to explaining the early travails of his Reds career.
Recent evidence has suggested Liverpool and Nunez are beginning to form a much better understanding, the 23-year-old netting on his last outing to take him to nine for the season.
But no sooner had he began to feel settled in England, the former Benfica man was faced with a similar problem in Qatar - thanks primarily to Uruguay coach Diego Alonso.
At least that's how it appeared from the outside as the South Americans fumbled their way through the opening two games of their World Cup group, held to a goalless draw by South Korea and then posting an awful display in losing 2-0 to Portugal. Nunez, marooned on the left flank, barely had a touch, let alone a goal threat. He didn't even make it to the end of the latter match, hooked long before full-time.
And it didn't look particularly encouraging 20 minutes into Friday's decisive Group H clash with Ghana after Uruguay conceded a penalty in contentious circumstances. Nunez - showing shades of the temperament that got the better of him on his home Liverpool debut - was booked for attempting to scuff up the spot ahead of Andre Ayew's kick.
With the build-up dominated by talk of the penalty former Liverpool striker Luis Suarez conceded at the end of the World Cup quarter-final meeting between the two countries back in 2010 - Suarez was sent off for handling on the line only for Asamoah Gyan to miss the spot kick - the weight of history was too much for Ayew, whose meek shot was parried by Uruguay goalkeeper Sergio Rochet.
Nunez was first on the scene to clear the rebound. And the incident sparked both player and team into life, the Reds forward moments later having a fine effort cleared off the line and then playing a part in the build-up to a quickfire first-half double from Giorgian de Arrascaeta.
Operating in a more central role, Nunez was a constant threat. He could easily have been awarded a penalty during the second half after a clumsy challenge by Daniel Amartey, the claim dismissed after a lengthy VAR check although the visible suggestion from Ghana boss Otto Addo the Liverpool man had dived was rather unfair.
But then came the denouement, with Nunez and Suarez both having been substituted by the hapless Alonso before news of South Korea's ultimately winning strike against Portugal - which meant Uruguay needed another goal to qualify for the last 16 - left the South Americans struggling in vain to progress, and the Liverpool man in tears on the touchline.
This will have hurt Nunez hugely. But Klopp will hope the £85million striker can now channel his inevitable frustration into improving Liverpool performances during the second part of the campaign.
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