Some would say it has come a little too late, but there was a strong whiff of Liverpool 2017/18 at Old Trafford on Thursday night.
With a defence that was impressive but nowhere near as confidence-inspiring as it would be if others were there, a goalkeeper intent on giving fans kittens and forwards exploiting space and proving to be lethal on the counter-attack, Jurgen Klopp's side looked a bit like the vintage that got to the Champions League final in Kiev three years ago and qualified for the same tournament via the Premier League on the final day.
The latter possibility suddenly looks very much on this season following the excellent 4-2 victory over Manchester United, and with the Reds playing in a manner that many had hoped to see for the majority of this disjointed campaign, the biggest throwback came in the final moments when Mo Salah scored.
That meant that all of the front three had found the net in the same game, just as they did on eight separate occasions in 2017/18, Liverpool's most entertaining season under Klopp when it comes to the football they were playing.
Except of course that was THE front three, and this wasn't.
Diogo Jota justified his start ahead of Sadio Mane with Liverpool's equalising goal, and then he could have scored again after Roberto Firmino's brace when he rattled the post following a brilliant break.
Mane was on for Jota by the time Salah raced clear to slot into that curiously large gap left by Dean Henderson to complete the victory, but that wasn't going to placate the Senegalese at full-time.
He had wanted to play, to join his fellow stars of the front three for such a big game, and he was going to let his manager know all about it. And because this was Manchester United versus Liverpool, the world too.
And you can understand the situation from all sides, really.
Klopp's post-match admittance that he had made the late call to start Jota over Mane was, you suspect, a truthful one, with the Liverpool boss having waited until the last moment to make the decision
"No there's no problem," Klopp told Sky Sports after the match, with the broadcaster just hoping for the mere hint of one.
"Yesterday I made a late decision in training to go with Diogo.
"I would usually explain it but there was no time for that. It is all fine."
But for Mane, a player who owes much of his current standing in the world game to Klopp, that lack of an explanation would no doubt have stung.
He, like many of the Liverpool players who have reached the promised land under the German, view the manager as something of a cross between a father figure and a good mate. You know how much they respect him because they always tell you.
"His secret, I think, is to be the team’s dad," Mane told France Football back in 2019.
"Between us, everything clicked straight away. We all love him like a father, and we fear him like one too. He takes up a lot of space in my life, and not just in football. He’s great as a person. I trust him blindly, like most of the dressing room, I think."
Klopp's bond with his players is one of the main reasons for Liverpool's success in recent years, and part of that includes the playing down of incidents of apparent unrest.
Mane has been at the forefront of some of those when you think back to his infamous row with Salah at Burnley in the title-winning season, while there was similar annoyance when coming off for the Egyptian in the 7-0 win over Crystal Palace last December.
Both of those occasions and others have been quickly laughed off - remember Firmino's smirk at Burnley? - but there was probably something different about Old Trafford.
Mane has recently admitted that he has been going through the toughest time of his career, even admitting he underwent tests to try and see what he was doing wrong in his "worst season" as a professional.
The answer is probably that he needs a rest at some point seeing as he hasn't had one for years, but he is sure to be questioning himself in ways that he never has before. Klopp suddenly treating him differently won't have helped with that.
Yet the brutal truth for Mane, and indeed for Firmino and Salah, is that time does not stand still.
Regardless of the defensive issues, you can link much of Liverpool's struggles this season to the four-month injury absence of Jota, who shook up the established order when he arrived at the club and injected a level of freshness in attack that was needed.
He has played ahead of all three of the famed forward line at times, but that is what Liverpool need if they are to evolve and go on to reach the summit again under Klopp.
Mane has rightly been used to his place in the team being unchallenged, but the brutal reality is that he is there to be shot at over the coming years.
The Reds will be back in the transfer market this summer, and while a move for a superstar like Kylian Mbappe or Erling Haaland might be pure fantasy football, signing a player such as Jota would not be. Like him, they're probably out there under our noses right now, just as Mane was when he signed.
That 2017/18 Liverpool might have set the standards for everything that has followed, but while many of the major components still around from it still have much, much more offer, they are also going to need some top quality, and yes, younger assistance.
Mane was understandably annoyed at being left out at Old Trafford, but it was to Liverpool's benefit that the manager could even think about doing so.
And that simply has to be the status quo from now on.
