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No matter how many tactical innovations a manager comes up with, regardless of the time and repetition spent on the training ground, sometimes energy and desire are what win games.
For Jurgen Klopp's heavy-metal football to work the way it's meant to, the team has to have a little from column A, a lot from column B and an entire pie chart of C.
Liverpool's 4-3-3 is explosive and relentless, can they really keep it up for an entire season? What are the secrets to making it work?
Holding it all together
Klopp's 4-3-3 is very attacking - he doesn't care if you aren't ready for it. In fact, that's part of the plan.
Pace in wide areas is fundamental. Klopp specifically targeted Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah for the wings because they are so quick and he now has Alberto Moreno and Andrew Robertson to select at left-back, with Nathaniel Clyne and Trent Alexander-Arnold on the right. All of these players are absolutely rapid.
The two attacking midfielders are expected to charge forward to join in attacks, with the idea being that Liverpool win the ball either high up the pitch and overload the opponent to prevent them passing out from the back, or win it in the middle of the pitch and counter-attack at speed before they have a chance to reorganise.
The wing-backs can overlap to help outnumber wide defenders or allow the wingers to tuck inside to attack through the middle. Mane and Salah can play on either side, as well as in central areas, while Philippe Coutinho is a threat from anywhere around the final third.
Holding it all together is the central midfielder. This role is crucial and Jordan Henderson is excellent at it, recycling play and pinging passes out to more advanced teammates, operating as a deep-lying playmaker from a position near the centre-backs when Liverpool are high up the pitch.
Roberto Firmino is brilliant
It's common for an attacking player signed for a lot of money to be judged in terms of goals and assists, and dismissed if he doesn't instantly begin setting records. And if he happens to be foreign, Clive, it's even more difficult for The Football Men to decipher.
But Firmino is integral to Liverpool's system, regardless of how many goals he scores. So much of his work is done off the ball that it goes unnoticed - he makes the attack function the way it is supposed to - and when Klopp puts someone like Divock Origi or Daniel Sturridge in the same position, attacks often break down.
"People say he does not score enough. What?!” said Klopp in July. “He is the best player without scoring with how well he reads the game for the benefit of others. Outstanding!
“What if he starts thinking ‘oh, I need more goals’ and starts shooting from all over the place when usually, he would play a clever ball and make a run to open up the space?"
This is the kind of run that Firmino makes, taken from the 2015/16 season against Man City.
A central striker like Sturridge wants to be on the end of a cross and might look for one-two here, to put Coutinho back out on the left so that he can attack the penalty area for the next ball into the box. Firmino sees the space and knows that by running into it, he frees up room for Coutinho to move into, but also drags the centre-back with him, meaning that Adam Lallana, who is just over his shoulder, can act as the central striker in this move.
“Roberto is a clever player," says Coutinho. "He makes those diagonal runs that are so important to our play at Liverpool.
“He’s always available to receive the ball on his own up there and, even if he doesn’t get a chance on goal for himself, he helps to create opportunities for us."
When Liverpool play against teams like Burnley, who sit back with everyone behind the ball to deny space in attacking moves, too often they run out of ideas. Movement is what creates those spaces for the forwards to get into, and as the player highest up the pitch, Firmino has been the difference on many an occasion.
By dropping from that striker's position, he leaves room for the attacking midfielders or wingers to move into - it's much harder to defend a player running from deep than one whose shirt you can get a grip on.
Firmino works hard defensively, making 58 tackles and 28 interceptions last season, which is comparable to James McArthur (59 and 26) or Steven Davis (54 and 24), who are ball-winning midfielders.
This an example of the kind of thing you don't get from an out-and-out goalscorer, taken from Liverpool's 3-0 win over Bayern Munich in pre-season.
Firmino reads a pass in the centre-circle, steps in to intercept and puts his team on the front foot. It's almost impossible for a defence to get in position when the ball is turned over in this part of the pitch.
Mane flies forward...
And scores as Bayern struggle to get back in time.
Firmino scored 11 and assisted seven goals in 35 league games last season - it is not that he doesn't contribute in terms of numbers, just that he is often the instigator of counter-attacks, turnovers in possession high up the pitch and understands that ducking out of space leaves an opportunity for someone else to exploit.
Nothing works without energy
Bayern Munich couldn't live with Liverpool's pace and energy in their pre-season encounter and ended up looking dizzy in a 3-0 defeat. For a lot of last season they looked this good - but when the wheels come off this train, it quickly crashes to a halt, as their winter slump showed.
Klopp's style is one reliant on battering an opposition into submission, tiring them out with constant running, keeping possession and taking advantage of mistakes caused by this.
If Klopp can keep the momentum going, Liverpool will be a formiddable opponent for anyone this season. If they don't start on the front-foot or do happen to take their foot off the gas for too long, the defensive weaknesses - which haven't really been addressed in the transfer market, nor catered for with a more cautious approach to games - could be their undoing.
Liverpool players better be prepared for a frantic season - Klopp doesn't care for any other way.
- Roberto Firmino is valued at £5.7m in Telegraph Fantasy Football, but is he good enough to make your team? - pick a team today >>