He retains the ability to decorate a game like few others in world football.
But even if Philippe Coutinho bites the hand that used to feed him by scoring a spectacular goal and contributing to a home win in the Nou Camp this evening, there still has to be the sense that the Liverpool team he's facing is much better than the one he left.
Ninety-one Premier League points from 36 games tells you that much, and so too does a second successive Champions League semi-final in the 15 months since he moved on for £142million.
The Brazilian may not have had the smoothest of Barcelona experiences so far, with transfer speculation, debate over his form and moody goal celebrations all featuring, but he wanted this stage, and it is increasingly looking like Liverpool were right to let him eventually take it with a minimum of fuss.
Jurgen Klopp explains why Liverpool included untried youngster in squad for Barcelona
"If you'd have said to most people when he left for Barca that they'll play each other less than 18 months later in the semi-finals of the Champions League, and Liverpool still had a chance to win the league they'd go hmmm... I don't think so," says former Reds defender and BBC Sport pundit Mark Lawrenson.
"But the sale of Coutinho was fantastic business, and while he was a very, very good player for Liverpool, I don't think he was as good as people were making him out to be, and they've kicked on."
'Kicking on' has included a spot in last season's Champions League final and some quite remarkable Premier League consistency in the current campaign, all of which comes with the caveat of the strength of Manchester City .
But as Jurgen Klopp keeps preaching, Liverpool can only look after themselves.
While there may eventually be regrets over the odd game should the league title elude them again, by what you'd presume will be the finest of margins, you'd have to be particularly one-eyed not to note the progress the team has made in Klopp's image since they lost their best individual talent of the 2014-17, post-Luis Suarez period.
Philippe Coutinho highlights Liverpool danger men to Barcelona teammates
The best chance of a trophy to colour that progress now perhaps lies in the Champions League, where a couple of defensive stars are now key to the post-Coutinho approach.
"If you look at it, most of the money for Coutinho has bought Virgil van Dijk and Alisson," continues Lawrenson.
"If he was still at Liverpool I don't think Coutinho would have done the tracking back that the front three do.
"And that's even better for the manager that he's got courage in his own conviction that, as good as he was, maybe doesn't fit my system. So well done to him.
"He'd win you games, but over the course of a season it doesn't just about that. Sometimes you have to do the sh***y things as well in football."
There are likely to be plenty of those "sh***y things" to do at the Nou Camp, but as Klopp takes to the dugout there for the very first time, the knowledge that he's doing it with his team in his image will be right in front of him in that Barcelona No.7 shirt.
Mark Lawrenson is a Paddy Power ambassador, to read more go to news.paddypower.com
