Jurgen Klopp made the controversial move to substitute Mohamed Salah on Thursday, with many supporters since questioning the logic behind such a risky decision.
After 60 minutes of competition, Liverpool were losing 1-0 at Anfield to Thomas Tuchel's well-organised Chelsea team, who seemed relatively comfortable containing the Reds at the time while posing an attacking threat themselves at the opposite end.
Klopp wanted to introduce the returning Diogo Jota, but rather than opting for Sadio Mane or Roberto Firmino to name but two players who weren't thriving, the German opted for Salah who had arguably impacted proceedings to a greater extent.
Liverpool failed to generate much on the day, but their two biggest openings originated from Salah's vision and execution of incisive passes, with Mane receiving one before Jones received the other before half-time.
Neither of Salah's teammates managed to connect with the passes as desired, with zero shots generated from them.
During the contest, the Egyptian international contributed more than his two attacking partners across a number of different departments.
In terms of progressive carries - with those being carries that move the ball at least five yards towards the opponent's goal or carries into the box - Salah posted six in an hour compared to five combined by Firmino and Mane, both of whom played the full match.
Salah also found the penalty area with three passes, which was the joint-most alongside Trent Alexander-Arnold, with Firmino and Mane both posting a total of zero.
For progressive passes, the story was largely similar; Salah completed eight which was more than any of his teammates, and that was enough to dwarf the combined total of four by Firmino and Mane.
He failed to contribute with actual goals or assists, but the numbers clearly capture his impact on the team's ability to advance up the field into the valuable areas that matter.
Moreover, if the likelihood of scoring was factored into the decision-making process, Salah currently leads the Premier League race for the Golden Boot on 17, and even once removing penalties, his 11 goals is still notably more than Mane's seven and Firmino's six.
Klopp pointed towards Salah's intensity and the belief that he was tired at the time of the substitution and that much remains to be seen, but he accumulated 13 pressures throughout the clash, which was the same number posted by Mane who played half an hour longer, and was one more than Firmino's 12.
Ultimately, as Liverpool desperately search to rediscover their form, Salah's early removal against his former team can be added to the already long list of strange occurrences that have surfaced at Anfield this season.
