Look out for Liverpool's forward four
Wijnaldum, Coutinho, Mane and Lallana look the real deal
The frenetic period lasted around 20 minutes, but it was enough.
Liverpool looked different. They looked like winners again.
Four footballers, on opposite sides of the pitch but united in their creative cause, displayed a vibrant attacking impetus that felt like a flashback.
In their 4-3 victory at Arsenal yesterday morning (Singapore time), Georginio Wijnaldum, Philippe Coutinho, Adam Lallana and Sadio Mane didn't so much evoke memories of an old Juergen Klopp side as they did an old Liverpool side.
If the attractive, exhilarating football was shaped in Klopp's Bundesliga, it was born in the Anfield Boot Room, that iconic cubbyhole filled with rotten socks and radical dreams.
Whatever one's allegiance, there was always a soft spot for the Reds under Shankly, Paisley, Fagan and Dalglish. Their football was fast and their artistry effortless. Whatever the result, the Reds were always worth watching.
They are again.
Early evidence suggests Klopp's Liverpool will be similarly beguiling, if his front four continue to play with such verve and versatility; neither shackled to one particular role nor chained to a specific position.
Lallana admitted that his manager demanded more risk-taking from the forward line at half-time, effectively ripping off the psychological straitjackets of his timid players.
In this regard, Klopp really is the antithesis of England's former manager Roy Hodgson, who managed to take an intelligent, productive creator in Lallana and turn him into a jittery machine with no end product and no self-confidence.
At the Emirates, Klopp did the reverse, throwing his wide men further forward and demanding great counter-pressing.
Three goals swiftly followed. Three goals that showcased the vast potential of Lallana as a gifted playmaker, a potential that is so often buried deep within a fragile soul for both club and country.
Those three goals played to both Lallana and Liverpool's strengths, where static attacking positions were sacrificed in favour of fluidity, with Klopp trusting his artists to paint the right pictures at the right time.
He doesn't expect them to think out of the box. He removes the box altogether, allowing his adaptable performers to find solutions, quite literally, on the run.
As a result, two of Liverpool's goals were the kind of mesmerising goals that Arsenal used to score: with quick interplay, flicked passes and nifty finishes that couldn't possibly be fashioned on a training ground.
The other goals came from the sublime, individualistic instincts of Coutinho and newcomer Sadio Mane. Both should flourish under the new regime because Klopp has little time for automatons.
IMPROVISATION
So often, automatons are confused for industrious, box-to-box types, which are indeed important players in Klopp's high-pressing game. In reality, they are often square pegs squeezed into square holes with little scope for improvisation.
Brendan Rodgers obsessed over tactical lines and specific pieces on a whiteboard at Liverpool, as if players were not moving parts but fixed points of his grand design. Not surprisingly, his Reds rarely displayed anything like the freedom of movement witnessed at Arsenal.
Klopp prefers flexible forwards who roam and rotate. Wijnaldum, who was involved in two of the goals, teased Liverpool fans with the kind of resourcefulness that serves their counter-attacking.
The Dutchman was erratic at Newcastle, doing little to skip away from the relegation trapdoor, but Klopp saw a footballer capable of slipping across to support Jordan Henderson in the middle or drifting out wide to assist Coutinho.
Likewise, Mane's stupendous goal underlined his long-term role.
He set off on the right like an old-school dribbling winger, turned into an incisive wide man to slip inside before smashing the ball into the corner with the authority of an archetypal centre forward. Flexibility is his forte.
And floating above the fray was the majestic Coutinho. Under Klopp, the diminutive dynamo can finally match consistent performances with his undoubted pedigree.
Of course, there are still flaws.
Roberto Firmino is a neither here nor there in the middle and Alberto Moreno remains a liability at left back.
But the front four of Coutinho, Wijnaldum, Lallana and Mane are a cause for quiet optimism.
Quite often, they gleefully scattered across the turf like a dropped bag of marbles, hard to catch and tough to stop.
Time will tell if Klopp can bring back the trophies. But he's certainly brought back the fun.
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