Liverpool left themselves with an awful lot of work to do this summer. As manager Jurgen Klopp put it, the Reds had to "reinvent one of the most successful midfields this club ever had". Of course, they only had themselves to blame in that regard.
An awful lot of time and effort was wasted on wooing Jude Bellingham, who ended up joining Real Madrid for far less money than a panicking Liverpool offered Brighton for Moises Caicedo. By that stage, the fans were as confused as they were frustrated.
They had been buoyed by the pace at which Liverpool had wrapped up deals for Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai - an apparent sign that under new sporting director Jorg Schmadtke the club was finding its feet again in the transfer market.
However, Liverpool then exacerbated their midfield problem by letting both Fabinho and Jordan Henderson move to Saudi Arabia without having a single replacement lined up. Alarm bells started ringing around Anfield, as both Caicedo and Romeo Lavia - their top two defensive midfield transfer targets - both joined Chelsea.
Schmadtke, though, managed to turn things around in the final two weeks of the market by returning to his native Germany to sign Wataru Endo from Stuttgart, and Ryan Gravenberch from Bayern Munich. The pair may be at opposite ends of their respective careers, but both look like bargain buys.
Consequently, Klopp is in far better form than he was ahead of the opening game of the Premier League season at Stamford Bridge, where he played Cody Gakpo in midfield alongside Mac Allister and Szoboszlai with predictably unimpressive results.
"The midfield will be completely new," he said. "I know people expected it to be different but it is how it is and I really think we did good business. The players we brought in are really good and will help the team. We got younger but we had to. We are less experienced but that is normal. We are full of desire and I love this team."
There are a couple of reasons why. Firstly, as Klopp has already correctly pointed out, Liverpool now have a far greater goal threat in midfield than they did when the likes of Fabinho, Henderson, James Milner and Naby Keita were in the starting line-up.
Secondly, the new arrivals are very versatile, meaning there is scope for Liverpool to move away from their usual 4-3-3 formation if required. Indeed, it's clear that the Reds are now so well-stocked in midfield and attack that they could - and indeed should - eventually add a few more strings to their bow in the coming months and years.
Klopp is in no rush to experiment yet, though.
"We can definitely play different systems and we can think about that, for sure," he said, "but, early in the season you keep things [going well], by not changing 12 times in four days."
Such logic makes perfect sense, of course. Liverpool have four new midfielders; the primary objective has to be for them to learn how to function in Klopp's preferred formation - which is not easy, as Fabinho, for example, learned when he first arrived from Monaco.
So, what is the best combination right now, given Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott, Stefan Bajcetic and Thiago Alcantara are also vying for starting spots? GOAL runs through Liverpool's midfield options below and evaluates their chances of starting in Klopp's strongest side as the Premier League resumes after the international break...