The Manchester United starting XI on Sunday was the same as in the League Cup final. Unless those players elevate the club to greater heights, they will be remembered more for Anfield than Wembley.
United's players were as trapped as a limp combatant in the Colosseum. The longer the sport, the bloodier it got. It was a death by a thousand cuts.
Those United supporters in the Anfield Road End must have felt they had been teleported back to last season. The result and performance were akin to those sorry surrenders and it is the form that preceded Sunday's shellacking that made the shock factor such a jolt.
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United had won nine and drawn two of their previous 11 games. They had lost two of their last 32. A trophy was paraded on the Old Trafford pitch only five days ago. That hubris nearly backfired against West Ham.
Only West Ham are liable to let a team off the hook. Liverpool aren't. At their optimum, there is not a more ruthless team around and the United players underestimated the fixture.
Wout Weghorst and Raphael Varane were the only United players who approached the away end of their own volition. Steve McClaren and Varane had to instruct the others to acknowledge the supporters who were diplomatically applauding.
"I didn't get the applause at the end but no point in booing," messaged one supporter, who stayed. "We did enough of that last year. The team have a lot of credit in the bank at the moment with the fans. It was never going to be hostile."
Erik ten Hag eschewed the away-dayers. He strode onto the pitch, shook hands with the officials, turned 180 degrees, pressed the flesh of Cody Gakpo, and stomped towards the tunnel.
When Ten Hag was asked if the players had attempted to explain their capitulation, he replied: "No, I didn't give them the chance until now."
Anfield does strange things to footballers. United have won only three times there since Carlos Tevez's matchwinner in December 2007 and scored once in their last eight winless matches. That came in Jose Mourinho's last stand. United last triumphed at Liverpool in January 2016.
Even when Liverpool were in United's shadow, they were never soundly beaten and twice won with workhorses Lucas Leiva and Dirk Kuyt starting and Kenny Dalglish in the dugout. Louis van Gaal masterminded the best United performance at Anfield in the last 25 years in March 2015 and Liverpool still valiantly lost 2-1.
Another United season ticket holder in the away end on Sunday said how bullish those around him were at half-time. United had performed respectably; containing Liverpool's ebullient start, finding the gaps but not getting the goal.
The swiftness of Liverpool's second goal in the 47th minute was as good as a contest killer. The timing was such a psychological fillip and Marcus Rashford's miscued shot was still so fresh in the memory the game was not as salvageable as the scoreline suggested.
After Gakpo dinked in the third, the crowd sensed carnage. Once Mohamed Salah lashed the fourth in, the carnage had begun. Liverpool had no intention of declaring as prematurely as Ben Stokes.
Petulance suffused United. Somehow, only three of their players were shown a yellow card. The regression was so pitiful Bruno Fernandes tried to kick Stefan Bajčetić, failed and stopped running.
Fernandes has led United impressively for most of the season but expended more energy on whinging than winning. Ten Hag said on Thursday United "have many leaders who set the mentality". Everyone would have nodded in agreement at that. Three days later, it had aged like a rancid vegetable.
United had firefighters to contain the billowing flames. Instead, they allowed a wildfire to spread. They have never conceded eight goals in a single game in their 145-year history and Liverpool may rue some missed opportunities. In added time, they had a five-on-three breakaway.
It was reminiscent of Manchester City's epochal 6-1 stroll at Old Trafford in 2011. That day, United played with abandon at 1-3, 1-4 and 1-5. Sir Alex Ferguson lamented their refusal to accept the beating. Not since Boxing Day in 1931 had United been pummelled 7-0.
Had United not shipped four goals at Brentford in August and six at City in October, Ten Hag could confidently dismiss this as an aberration. He has to channel the negativity of the thrashing into a positive as he did with the generational nadir of Brentford - a worse performance, if not scoreline - that preceded the uplifting victory over Liverpool at Old Trafford.
This is a test of United's mettle. The championship challenging chatter was guff. They are a minimum of two quality players short and there is still uncertainty at right-back and in goal.
Should United finish third in the table, that would represent an undeniable success on the back of their worst season in decades and the uncertain starting point. The fallow years ended at the earliest possible date against Newcastle.
There are presentable opportunities in the Europa League and the FA Cup. The fixture list is kind in that three of United's next four are cup ties and the league meeting is with relegation fodder Southampton. United should enter the March internationals with the possibility of requiring two more plinths in the club museum for the summer.
That is what the players must strive to be remembered for.
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