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Arne Slot knew that Liverpool would need to evolve during his tenure when he arrived at Anfield, but to begin with, he didn't change too much. As his first season progressed, though, it became clear what the next step needed to be.
At the start of his first season, his side established what turned out to be an unassailable lead at the top of the Premier League. It won its first seven Champions League group matches and qualified in first position.
In the second half of the season, though, things changed. Liverpool was unfortunate to draw PSG in the last-16 in Europe, but it wasn't able to create as freely in the league.
While it won the Premier League title, Slot also noted that his team lost to PSG and then Newcastle in the space of a few days, exiting the Champions League and losing the Carabao Cup final inside a week.
Liverpool entered the summer, then, in need of two things: more depth and more quality in the final third. At the end of last season, he hinted at the big transfer window to come and suggested he was looking for "extra weapons".
"The first part of last season, Jurgen [Klopp] gave me a lot of gifts, but one of the gifts he also gave me was ending up third the year before and fifth the year before," Slot said today.
"Him being so well known, a new manager came in and everybody thought, 'Oh, let's start to play against Liverpool.'
"Teams played in a completely different way in the first half of the season against us than they did when we were top of the league after half of the season and when we were top of the Champions League after the first part of the season.
"I can see this going now into this part of this season and we have to find answers to that. Last season, one of the answers was a set-piece, like many teams unlock a low block with set-pieces. This season, we haven't done that yet."
Burnley was always likely to sit deep against Liverpool and it almost worked for Scott Parker until the penalty for handball was awarded deep into stoppage time.
Games with Arsenal, Newcastle, and Galatasaray have been disrupted and ultimately decided by set-pieces and moments, rather than creative, attacking soccer.
But that Slot is so insistent that teams have changed their approach also offers an insight into his summer plan. Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike are both capable of breaking down a packed defense, but that is the specialty of Florian Wirtz.
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In the German playmaker, Liverpool will eventually have a player capable of pulling off a pass out of nowhere, or opening up just enough of a gap to take a shot himself.
Wirtz's attributes — his incisive passing and his decisive dribbling around the penalty area — are exactly the kinds of things that Liverpool didn't have at the top of its midfield last season. He scored 16 goals and set up another 15 last season.
Dominik Szoboszlai — as we have already seen several times in the first few games of the new campaign — will still have a role to play, but he is a very different kind of number 10. And for the problem that Slot has identified, Wirtz is ideal.
Right now, the 22-year-old is still getting up to speed. So far, his impact has been limited, but there have also been a few glimpses and signs.
He has, for instance, created a joint-high 21 chances for his teammates in all competitions this season (no one in the Premier League has made more).
As Wirtz gets used to those around him and Salah and Isak find form, his impact will become more noticeable. He cost up to $157 million (£116 million), but with a very specific job in mind.
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