A little known fact for you: today was the first Liverpool Premier League game without Steven Gerrard registered in the squad since May 1998. That's 17 years with a tub-thumping Gerrard at the heart of all things Liverpool.
It was always going to difficult (impossible) to replace Gerrard but it will be very interesting to see how the club move on with their favourite son tearing it up for LA Galaxy in the MLS.
Liverpool's first game of this season, against the same Stoke team that tore them to shreds with a 6-1 drubbing on the final day of last term, offered as a few tantalising clues of what can be expected post-Gerrard - even if it did end up being a relatively dour 1-0 win for the Reds.
Grab yourself a biscuit and enjoy our three things we learned about a Liverpool sans Gerrard offering
1. Milner and Henderson just won't do
James Milner and Jordan Henderson (especially the latter now he's got the captaincy) have got some big boots to fill and, on today's showing, but are going to need to up their game considerably.
Between the two of them they offer fantastic honest hard graft but what was clear from today was that Liverpool were desperately missing some creativity from deep. Phillipe Coutinho and Adam Lallana, though nott setting the world alight themselves (until the Brazilian's scorcher), were starved of possession from early on and consequently Liverpool failed to ever really click into gear.
The supposed theory behind having Henderson and Milner as a deep-lying two posits that this will build a foundation for Liverpool's more gifted attaching midfielders to work off, but on the evidence of today, this s
2. Someone needs to step up and become the main man at Anfield
Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez, Raheem Sterling. Regardless of what they did or didn't achieve at the club, these are all BIG characters with distinctive playing styles that have left Anfield in the last couple years.
Of course, when you're bringing in an influx of new names and faces, it's always going to become difficult to achieve a solid identity or persona, in the same way that Gerrard characterised everything about the club or Suarez brought to life those around him in only the way he can.
This one is just a matter of time and hoping that certain individuals begin to impose themselves on both the team and the club in a manner necessary for the club to continue challenging at the business end of the season. Phillipe Coutinho showed glimpses of what he's fully capable of last year and after providing the decisive moment in the win at Stoke, Liverpool fans will be desperate for him to push on and do for the club what Eden Hazard has done, for example, at Chelsea.
3. The team feels it lacks an identity
Wasn't this season supposed to be the season we see Liverpool fully adopt the certified Brendan Rodgers brand of passing football?
Admittedly Stoke isn't the easiest place to come to play football - reference any sort of Stoke-based meme from the last five years - yet Liverpool looked a long way from displaying a coherent system.
Where does Emre Can fit into the system and are Phillipe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino too alike to fit into the same starting XI? Despite a promising win in the first game of the campaign, there are still a lot of questions that need answering at Anfield.