The immediate aftermath of a 6-3 win might feel like a strange time to start picking holes in Liverpool’s attacking play.
But, as good as Wednesday’s victory over LASK was, nobody involved is under any illusions as to the level of the opponent in comparison to that faced each weekend in the Premier League.
And it is in that competition that, thus far, the Reds have struggled to show sufficient cutting edge under Andoni Iraola.
Given the Basque’s reputation for free-flowing football, it is perhaps a surprise that he has - that half-hour with a one-man deficit against Manchester City aside - largely fixed the defence first.
Only one Premier League team (Brighton) has more than Liverpool’s three clean sheets this season, and their goals against record was similarly impressive until Sunday’s late flurry at Anfield.
However, Iraola was appointed primarily to bring back the front-footed, attacking football last seen under Jurgen Klopp, and that is his next task after building a solid defensive base.
Clearly, he has work to do, with the Reds’ seven goals in six league games placing them behind 12 other teams by that measure, the vast majority of whom have far less expensively assembled attacks.
And it isn’t like they have been particularly unlucky, either, as a ninth-best xG for tally (9.3) and eighth-best shots on target per 90 count (5) prove.
In fairness to Iraola, these problems preceded his arrival, arguably starting in the second half of Arne Slot’s first season in charge of the club.
That entire campaign was built on the back of Mohamed Salah’s greatest-ever individual season, albeit credit is due for the decision to feed so much through the Egyptian.
But once he began to fall away from those incredible heights, the fundamentals weren’t in place to prevent an overall attacking slide that has yet to be corrected.
And while that is also partly due to turnover in personnel, the job of the new man in charge is to make sure the many recently added pieces gel into a functioning frontline.
Despite those relationships still building, Liverpool currently sit sixth in the Premier League for both shots (89) and shots on target (30).
Unfortunately, the biggest failing of their attacking unit is that it does not generate particularly high-quality opportunities, as evidenced by the fact that no side has created fewer big chances (9) than them this term while Brighton lead the way with 27.
