Anyone who had the misfortune of witnessing Liverpool's dismal goalless draw against Chelsea on Saturday has probably already banished the sorry experience from memory.
But for Stefan Bajcetic, it represented another notable landmark in his embryonic Reds career.
Having shone in the FA Cup third round replay win at Wolverhampton Wanderers in midweek, the 18-year-old was given a first Premier League start for the weekend visit of the Londoners.
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Up against the likes of Jorginho and Mason Mount, Bajcetic will have learned much from the occasion, and his maturity was evident in negotiating more than half of the game on a yellow card following a 34th-minute booking.
The Spaniard has been the breakthrough star for Liverpool this season, impressing Jurgen Klopp having grasped the opening of a place on the summer tour to Thailand and Singapore and now regarded by the Reds boss as a fully-fledged first-team squad member. It has also helped earn him a new long-term contract which he signed on Thursday.
In all competitions, Bajcetic has made 10 appearances. And that figure sees him act an unwitting barometer of the availability issues that have hampered Liverpool this campaign - the teenager has featured more times than Naby Keita, Ibrahima Konate and Diogo Jota, the same as Curtis Jones and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and only two fewer than Luis Diaz.
By comparison to those team-mates, the youngster is only just getting started at Liverpool. But making the notable step up from Academy player to Premier League starter isn't necessarily a guarantee of longevity in the top flight under Klopp.
Bajcetic faces a difficult but not impossible task. During the Klopp era, 16 youth graduates - and by which we mean players who, even if bought in from elsewhere, have spent at least one full season at the Academy before stepping up to the senior side - have been handed a full Premier League debut.
Only three have thus far reached double figures in terms of league starts for Liverpool. Trent Alexander-Arnold is the obvious standout, having made 164 Premier League starts since his first at Old Trafford in January 2017.
Curtis Jones, with 25 starts, comes next, with Nat Phillips the other, although the last of his 16 Premier League starts was back in August at home to Crystal Palace.
Rhys Williams (seven), Caoimhin Kelleher (four) and Tyler Morton (one, at Tottenham Hotspur last season) are the only other such players still on the books at Liverpool.
Of those who have departed, Neco Williams made 33 appearances for the Reds but only six were as a Premier League starter, the same as Kevin Stewart, who had 20 outings overall. Sheyi Ojo had five top-flight starts, Brad Smith three, Connor Randall and Danny Ward two, while Pedro Chirivella and Cameron Brannagan had one each.
Even Ben Woodburn, who remains the club's youngest-ever goalscorer, made just one Premier League start - at Stoke City in April 2017 - out of his 11 appearances for the the Reds.
That the Premier League remains the pinnacle - Morton, for example, has made more Champions League starts - is underlined by the fact that, during Klopp's time in charge, a further 25 Academy graduates have been given a start in cup competitions without beginning a top-flight game, three coming this season in Bobby Clark, Melkamu Frauendorf and Layton Stewart.
In mitigation, nine of those first-time starters made their only such appearance while starring for what were in effect under-23 teams helmed by their then-coach Neil Critchley during either the Carabao Cup quarter-final at Aston Villa in December 2019 or the FA Cup fourth round replay against Shrewsbury Town two months later.
Further analysis reveals seven of the 16 first-time Premier League starters from the Academy under Klopp came during the closing weeks of the German's first season in charge in 2015/16 when, with the Europa League having taken absolute priority, the Liverpool boss named almost reserve teams in some league fixtures.
It demonstrates how opportunities for youngsters are very often the result of circumstance.
Consider this. Between Woodburn's full Premier League bow in April 2017 and that of Neco Williams in July 2020, there wasn't a single such debut awarded by Klopp to an Academy player. In that period, Liverpool secured a top-four place in successive seasons, finished second with 97 points the next and had already mathematically clinched the title before Williams and, later Jones, made their first top-flight starts. Put simply, there was sufficient senior experience, talent and availability.
Contrast that to the start of pandemic football between July 2020 and December 2020, when there were five full Premier League debuts handed out to Academy graduates by Klopp. Last season, Morton was the only breakthrough, with Bajcetic the first this campaign.
The teenager's performances, and the enthusiasm shown by Klopp, suggests there are many more to come. But in doing so, Bajcetic will prove the exception rather than the norm in the modern Liverpool era.
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