No area of the Liverpool team has quite summed up the transitional nature of a difficult season more than up front for Jurgen Klopp.
A lot has changed for the manager and his forward options since the final whistle blew on that 63-game marathon campaign last May.
Sadio Mane ended a wildly successful six years on Merseyside where he won every top-level trophy before Mohamed Salah put months of intense speculation behind him by signing a new contract to become the highest paid player of all time at Anfield.
Roberto Firmino has since indicated that he will be calling time on his own decorated eight-year tenure with the Reds at the end of this campaign to leave Salah as the last man standing from a feted front three who, in time, will become known as an iconic collective at Liverpool. That is if they aren't already, of course.
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During the time between Mane exiting for Bayern Munich and Firmino confirming his own summer intentions, Klopp has signed Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo, adding the Uruguay and Netherlands internationals to a squad that also brought in Luis Diaz from Porto at the start of 2022.
Indeed, a lot has changed in Liverpool's attacking department in a relatively short space of time. So much so, in fact, that a campaign of teething problems was perhaps to be expected in hindsight, even if it has taken longer for it to have become accepted.
Nunez, who arrived in June of 2022 from Benfica, has the potential to become the club's all-time record signing if his £21m worth of add-ons are triggered to take the overall outlay to £85m. Diaz is another whose eventual fee could reach as much as £50m if he is a major success under Klopp, while Gakpo's total figure may end up becoming £44m after his move from PSV Eindhoven at the turn of the year.
The restructuring of Liverpool's attack has not come on the cheap, evidently, even if those aforementioned players have been added across three separate transfer windows. That at least augurs well for those demanding major midfield surgery in the coming months.
For a variety of reasons, Klopp is still awaiting the true take-off of his relatively new-look forward line. The historic hammering of Manchester United last month provided a tantalising glimpse at what the future could hold for the Reds when it eventually clicks as Gakpo, Nunez and Salah all registered two each before Firmino put the gloss on a celebrated result with what will be one of his last ever goals for the club.
The adaptations of both Nunez and Gakpo have not been plain sailing. Nunez arrived into a club still struggling to overcome the mental and physical fatigue of last season's rollercoaster campaign, while Gakpo joined midway through the term when it was becoming increasingly apparent that this would be a season largely in the wilderness.
"Darwin and Cody have come in during a difficult season but I think both have adapted relatively well," says Andy Robertson, speaking in the official pre-match programme for the 2-2 draw with Arsenal. "Cody has obviously had a shorter time than Darwin and they're both trying to find their feet in the Premier League, which does take time.
"They're both young, they're both improving all the time on the training pitch and I think the longer we have them the better they'll become. That's obviously the aim when you sign these kinds of players. So I think they have made a big impact already but I think the impact in the future will be bigger. We're excited by how good they can become.
"Darwin doesn't speak much English but is a character and Cody is a really clever player. He's really intelligent and we'd seen that before he signed for us and since he signed for us. He came in a difficult moment in January when things weren't great and we couldn't quite get results so it must have been hard for him to settle but off the field, he settled in really well and is a big part of the changing room already.
"It always helps when you're settled off the field as it gives you the best chance to settle on the field and I think some of his performances have been excellent. So yes, we're looking for more from them and we're looking for more from everyone.
"Like I said, we all need to step up and Cody and Darwin are no different. If we want to get where we want to be then we need to be the best version of ourselves from now until the end of the season."
If the language barrier is no issue for Eindhoven-born Gakpo, Nunez continues to learn in between training sessions at the club's AXA Centre. Those behind the scenes insist he is developing well but the South American is still understandably unwilling to take on media requests while his lessons go on.
Trent Alexander-Arnold says: "I know a little bit of Spanish from school, so I am able to speak a little bit and he is learning English, which is good. We probably sort of speak part of a sentence in English and then maybe a word he doesn't know he'll say in Spanish and hope that I know what it means and then we'll carry on in English.
"So it's getting there and it's the same with most of the lads that come in and don't speak English. We speak the language of football. That's all that matters and Darwin is a really exciting player to play with. We all enjoy playing with him and we're still getting to know him, how he plays and moves, but it's exciting because he adds a lot to our team."
With Gakpo trying to learn a new position as the heir apparent to Firmino, the outstanding 'false 9' operator, a full pre-season spent honing the central role on the training pitches might mean the Oranje star's best will come next season now.
Ditto for Diaz, whose season has been wrecked by knee injuries. The Colombia international hasn't played for Liverpool since early October when a clash with Arsenal's Thomas Partey left him sidelined until December. The former Porto man then broke down during the club's mid-season trip to Dubai before he was flown home to Merseyside to undergo surgery.
Diaz is expected to be part of the match-day squad for the visit to Leeds United on Monday evening but it would be wholly unfair to expect instant results from an electric winger who has been sorely missed.
"He's very important," says Alexander-Arnold of Diaz. "He is a very exciting player, someone who plays the game in an amazing way and someone who we have obviously missed this season. It's exciting to have him back and it's still early-doors but hopefully he can stay fit and help us from now until the end of the season."
Robertson adds: "Luis is a fantastic player and I think the fans have really taken to him since last January when he signed. This season hasn't gone to plan for him and he's obviously had two big injuries, one when he'd just come back, which was a sucker-punch for all of us knowing he was out again and needed surgery.
"So it's great to have him back around the place and training with us and hopefully he'll be a big player for us as well. He's been out for a long time so we have to give him time to allow him to find his feet again, but having him as another between now and the end of the season is massive for us."
With Nunez, Diaz and Gakpo all still trying to really find their feet as Liverpool players, the departure of Firmino adds further pressure on Diogo Jota to return to the sorts of levels that enabled him to register 21 goals across all competitions last term.
Hamstring and calf injuries that have kept Jota sidelined for close to a combined six months this term have also stunted the Portugal international's progress, however. As a result, Klopp has been confronted with a maelstrom of problems that have increased responsibility on 24-goal Salah, probably to unfair levels at times.
But as the transition continues, there is hope that a full and uninterrupted pre-season for all of Liverpool's attackers will see them deliver the kind of devastating performances they have sporadically proven capable of this term on a more consistent basis.
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