There is no analysing a goal like Dominik Szoboszlai's for Liverpool in the pouring rain on Tuesday night. You simply cannot account for a strike of the quality that ripped into the back of Martin Dubravka's net to put any hopes of a Tottenham Hotspur revival to bed, the Hungary captain ending the contest with a moment that will live long in the collective memory at Anfield.
Similar goes for Giorgi Mamardashvili's stunning save against Omar Marmoush, the Georgian goalkeeper's reach, strength and reflexes nothing short of world class to claw away a heavily-deflected effort that looked certain to draw the scores level.
In truth, all three of Liverpool's goals in the 3-1 win, which set up a fourth-round clash with Xabi Alonso's Chelsea, were memorable moments in their own right, and this was a game defined by its moments rather than a convincing 90-minute performance from the Reds.
Nevertheless, Andoni Iraola saw plenty he enjoyed from his rotated side, and took time to praise the efforts of his fringe players in his post-match press conference.
"I was happy for them," Iraola said. "In different positions, different demands. But I think the best thing is probably that they were dead when I subbed them; Trey [Nyoni] was cramping, Rio [Ngumoha] couldn't have run a lot more, [James] McConnell the same.
"When this happens, it's because you've given us what you've got. They have especially been very, very energetic, with the willingness of winning the duels, making them feel their presence. I was happy for them."
After an uninspired performance against Fulham in which Liverpool looked short of legs and ideas, the importance of the squad players being able to contribute more regularly was brought into sharper relief.
With the new head coach's intense style of play requiring hard yards from all of his players, academy graduates Lewis Koumas and James McConnell made good fists of their opportunity to play and rewarded Iraola's trust, which will surely only open up further chances in future as the Reds attempt to navigate the taxing schedule of English football once again.
Plenty of eyes, though, will have been fixed on a player further back in the midfield, making his first start of the season alongside goalscorer Alexis Mac Allister.
Did Trey Nyoni do enough to convince Iraola that he's ready to start in the Premier League? And did his performance, and those of Liverpool's other midfielders against Spurs, provide any more answers as to how the Basque tactician can solve his midfield conundrum?
Quietly influential
In a game where Liverpool's current first-choice midfield pairing both scored screamers, Nyoni was unlikely to shine quite as brightly. But on the occasion of his first senior start since the Reds crashed out of this competition in the fourth round last year, the 19-year-old may well have been the most important of all.
Starting to Mac Allister's right, Nyoni was the deeper of the two midfielders, which gave the former a license to get forward more than in recent games alongside Szoboszlai.
Mac Allister hasn't struggled to make an impact in the final third this season - this was the 27-year-old's second goal in as many cup games this season, counting the Champions League tie against Atletico Madrid last week - but here he was noticeably more expansive.
The Argentine had three shots in the first half alone, the first being his delightfully curled finish from just inside the penalty area, and another opportunity would catch him unprepared after energetic work from Koumas to close down Marcos Senesi.
Those goals accounted for both of Mac Allister's two first-half touches in the penalty area, but Nyoni's role was more withdrawn, never crossing the white line into the 18-yard box during his 62 minutes on the pitch.
Much has been made of the lack of balance in Liverpool's midfield this season, but Nyoni naturally provides that for the Reds' more front-footed players in that department by his willingness to stay behind the play, where he can have the biggest influence on a game.
On Tuesday night, Nyoni regularly dropped in between or into the space just in front of Liverpool's centre-backs, giving the Reds an extra player in build-up and allowing him to play intelligent passes through the lines.
Starting deeper, Nyoni managed just two passes into the final third, but kept things moving quickly, attempting 39 passes from just 48 touches - succeeding with 37, including both of his attempted long passes, for the highest pass completion rate of any Liverpool player (95%).
Nyoni has essentially replaced Liverpool's previous controller in the squad, Curtis Jones, but prefers the game ahead of him more than the Scouser. In the first half, only the centre-back pairing of Ronald Araujo and Joe Gomez attempted more passes than the 19-year-old, as the Reds constantly looked to build up through him.
Even more impressive than Nyoni's confidence on the ball, though, was his defensive work. Aside from one awkward moment when an overzealous challenge allowed Marmoush to skip past him on the counter which led to a chance at the near post for Mohamed Kudus, the youngster hardly put a foot wrong.
In the first half alone, Nyoni made five defensive contributions - two tackles, two clearances and an interception, also making five recoveries and winning two out of three ground duels, as well as one aerial duel.
For some context, Szoboszlai has made four tackles across four Premier League matches so far this season. In just one half of football, Nyoni reached halfway to that total, and attempted another tackle after the break to boost his numbers even further.
The volume of Nyoni's work should paint a picture of what Liverpool were up against. Epitomised by Kudus' aforementioned miss, Tottenham were wasteful in front of goal, but still created enough to seriously test Mamardashvili on two occasions.
That chance for Kudus was the most emblematic of how Spurs approached the game, constantly looking to get Destiny Udogie round the outside on the overlap, and the Italian was his team's best creative outlet with 0.58 xA (expected assists).
That only increased in the second half, including after Andy Robertson replaced Udogie for his Anfield return, Tottenham directing 40% of their attacks towards the right side of Liverpool's defence.
Despite nicking the ball off a Tottenham toe in the lead-up to Cody Gakpo's thunderous goal, Nyoni's levels began to fade somewhat after the break - understandably, perhaps, with so few minutes in his legs yet this season - and patience will be required for him to build up to being able to play for longer regularly.
Perhaps the biggest compliment that can be paid to him, though, is what happened after he left the pitch.
A different sort of midfield
When Nyoni and McConnell were replaced with Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch on the hour mark, Spurs were already starting to look more threatening.
In putting more experienced heads on the pitch, Iraola no doubt hoped to be able to lock down the match more effectively, but this proved not to be the case.
Tottenham were able to put together a sustained spell of momentum after the substitutions, their only real such period in the game, and that persisted until the final 10 minutes or so when Liverpool again started to threaten on the break with the away side becoming more and more desperate to find a goal.
Conor Gallagher halved the deficit from a corner routine that Mamardashvili should have dealt better with - though he more than made up for it with his jaw-dropping stop later in the second half - and Liverpool, who saw just 40% of the ball in the second half, were beginning to look vulnerable.
The rest was history. Szoboszlai's chest-down and half-volley from all of 30 yards out is the only part of his performance in this game that will be remembered beyond the international break, but the Hungarian actually played more or less as unconvincingly as he had in other games this season that were not blessed with such a genuinely unforgettable goal.
Szoboszlai won just one of his five ground duels and fluffed a golden opportunity prior to his worldie, but more noteworthy was the shape with which Liverpool finished the game in midfield.
Rather than stick with the 4-2-3-1/4-4-1-1 formation Iraola has used all season, the head coach played Gravenberch, Mac Allister and Szoboszlai together in a midfield three more similar to the one with which the Reds won the Premier League title last year.
With a new style of play being worked on, this looked unfamiliar despite having previously been so commonplace for Liverpool, and the early signs were less than positive.
But this was ultimately the shape with which the Reds saw out the game, and it allowed Szoboszlai the freedom to make the attacking run in behind that saw him fire straight at Dubravka.
For all that the No. 8 has been rightly criticised for what has at times been poor defensive positioning in a relatively new role, he has only made one touch in the opposition box in the Premier League across the first four games of the season. In this game, he made two.
Given the technical profiles of Liverpool's midfielders, would it not perhaps make more sense to work on a set-up that allows them to express themselves more in this way?
Why Liverpool are unlikely to change shape
Liverpool looking uncertain after the substitutions should have been no real surprise. That performance in the last half an hour, which Mac Allister described as "not good", was players trying to adapt what is still - for the majority of them - a new set of tactical principles to a different formation, even if that formation was closer to one that many of them have played their best football in previously.
Even so, the same can be said of the shape Iraola has used for the most part this season. We are just six games into a new era, and it is likely that kinks like Szoboszlai's positioning in a double pivot will be ironed out somewhat with more time spent in games and on the training pitch.
The headscratcher for Iraola, though, will be whether that setup currently represents the best way of getting the most out of his players. Szoboszlai's goal was a timely reminder that, for all he has frustrated at times this season, he simply has to be in Liverpool's best team.
Off the bench against Spurs on Tuesday, he was given license to roam into areas where he can use his frightening skillset to full effect, and that was courtesy of having two players alongside him instead of one - but that poses the problem of where, exactly, Florian Wirtz fits.
Going back to the first half, Mac Allister looked similarly invigorated going forwards with the protection of a specialist defensive midfielder in Nyoni sitting alongside him - and on the basis of his performance, the youngster might be the key to unlocking the other two-thirds of that midfield, while allowing for a No. 10 in the team.
What is clear is that Nyoni isn't ready just yet to play 90 minutes every week in the Premier League. Though this was an extremely encouraging performance, he will need to build up to playing more regularly - but he has done himself no shortage of favours in terms of forcing his way into Iraola's thinking, if he wasn't there already.
At the very least, the head coach now knows he has another option that can be relied on against Premier League opposition, and the performances of Koumas and McConnell are at the very least proof that Liverpool's squad players can be trusted to execute his system and give everything during their minutes on the pitch.
But in Nyoni, Iraola might have just realised what he's been missing.
