As Liverpool's fading Premier League title aspirations took another hit in a 3-3 shootout with Brighton, the club's major summer signing Darwin Nunez watched on from the bench for 89 minutes.
The Uruguayan, recruited from Benfica for an initial 75-million-euro ($73 million, 66 million pounds) fee that could rise to 100 million euros, has found himself regularly sidelined by Jurgen Klopp in the early months of his Liverpool career despite a concerning start to the season for the Reds.
Liverpool have won just three of their opening nine games of the campaign to fall already 11 points off the pace in the Premier League and with work to do to reach the last 16 of the Champions League ahead of Rangers' visit to Anfield on Tuesday.
Nunez scored twice in his first two appearances as Liverpool beat Manchester City in the Community Shield and salvaged a 2-2 draw at Fulham on the opening weekend of the season.