If Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain thought the walk through the Anfield door would lead straight towards a guaranteed first team place, then he has had that idea painfully swept aside.
Not only has he been given just one start since his arrival at Liverpool in August as a big money, high profile signing, but he has also been told by his new manager Jurgen Klopp to forget the idea of being a central midfielder for now.
Yet the former Arsenal man accepts it must be that way, if he is to finally take the step towards the top class level so many have predicted for him from virtually the first day he kicked a football.
His eyes have certainly been opened under Klopp.
At previous club Arsenal, and even with England, he has never really feared for his place when fit, his natural pace and athleticism always earning him a start.
With the Reds boss though, it is different. It is not enough to have talent. You need desire and attitude too – and most importantly, the willingness to subvert that talent for the team cause if necessary.
So far, the England winger is still learning that new coda, and he admits the lack of any guarantees is helping him not only improve, but to develop the clinical mentality going forward his game has often seemed to have lacked.
At Arsenal, the complaint from fans was always the same: he didn't score enough goals for an attacking player with so much pace, strength and skill.
Yet on a remarkable Tuesday night in Maribor, he opened his Liverpool account with an assured flourish that suggests he can be a real goalscoring weapon for Klopp.
And afterwards, he conceded that the competition at Anfield can only be good for his career development, because it demands that he performs when he does get an opportunity to shine.
“It’s a competitive team that I’ve come in to. Everyone’s fighting for their place and I’m just ready for when I get the opportunity, like tonight.
“I need to keep developing and learning a new style of play here and get used to that and then whenever I get my opportunities, try to do as well as I can.
We’re in an important part of the season where we want to get off to a good start and we’ve got a few results that haven’t gone our way.”
If Oxlade-Chamberlain has been accused of lacking a ruthless streak, then so too have Liverpool, with the Reds having more shots on goal that any side in the Premier League this season, more even than Manchester City...but have scored 16 less goals than the leaders.
So many games have followed a difficult story, with Klopp's side creating enough chances to have won comfortably, but spurning far too many to give opponents a lifeline.
For the new £35m signing, that has brought pressure to perform, but he insisted the evidence in Solvenia - as Liverpool became record breakers with their biggest ever away victory in Europe – showed there are developing the clinical attitude their manager is demanding.
“More to the point we were more clinical today, putting away all our chances, or near enough all of them,” he said of his and the team's performance, which saw them record the biggest away win in Europe of any English club in history.
“Every week it feels like we’ve got a lot of goals in us and it’s just not clicking right at the final moment.
“I think we create a lot of opportunities and I hear people saying the stats are always Liverpool have 20 shots a game, so if we keep doing those things - that’s the important thing, that we keep creating chances and keep trying and hopefully it’ll come off for us and tonight they did.”