It seems that the only thing consistent about Liverpool just now is their inconsistency. The last few weeks have seen Jurgen Klopp's side record a succession of results that have veered from the superb to the abject, with no real rhyme or reason as to why.
Having initially looked like a corner had been turned with successive 1-0 wins at Anfield against Manchester City and West Ham United in mid-October, back-to-back Premier League losses to Nottingham Forest and Leeds United have understandably punctured that optimism.
Throw in two more victories in the Champions League against Ajax and Napoli, where they have scored five without conceding, and it's becoming increasingly difficult to predict just what version of Liverpool fans will be getting from game to game.
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Napoli arrived at Anfield as arguably Europe's most in-form team on Tuesday night. Led by the outstanding Georgian winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Luciano Spalletti's men pitched up having scored 50 goals across Serie A and the Champions League, against the side they had dismissed with a convincing 4-1 rout less than two months earlier in Naples.
At a time when Klopp was looking to rotate ahead of a more important fixture at Tottenham on Sunday afternoon, many had predicted a tough evening for the Reds in the final game of a group-stage campaign they had already qualified from.
That the continent's most free-flowing team this season saw their 21-game unbeaten run ended at Anfield via a 2-0 win for Klopp's men speaks to just how much of a head-scratcher it's been following Liverpool of late.
For their part, both the players and the manager have tried to keep a lid on just how low the confidence is and how frank the conversations have been, but one suspects there have been several home-truths delivered across a largely frustrating three-month period.
"It's definitely challenging and there have been tough conversations in the dressing room because we've been used to getting consistent results," says Joe Gomez on the inconsistency blighting the season. "It's been testing, but nothing is plain sailing forever, so we've got to remember what our fundamentals and core beliefs are and try and make it right to get some consistency back.
"We've had a lot less consistency than we've set the standard of having over the last few years. So, it's not where we want to be, but everybody in the building has the desire to treat the next game like it's the most important one to try and make right.
"The first thing we do as players is question ourselves individually. There have been occasions where we have done that as a group this season - the skipper or other senior members of the team have pulled a meeting together to try to dissect what we could do better and what we think has gone wrong.
"We've been together for a while and know each other well. The skipper has been here since before the gaffer came in and so have people like Milly (James Milner), Virgil (Van Dijk) and other senior players have been here for a long time, so it's honest and frank conversations that can be had on the bus after games or in the dressing room to say how it is and support each other when things aren't the best."
Two positives for Klopp to assess ahead of Sunday's now must-win trip to Tottenham is the goalscoring form of both Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah. The former's arrival with a little under 20 minutes to go was the catalyst for Liverpool to take what had previously been a finely balanced game away from the Italians on the night.
The Uruguayan thought he had broken the deadlock when he attacked Kostas Tsimikas's corner late on only for Alex Meret to palm into the path of Salah to finish off from close range. It was the Egyptian's 41st goal in Europe for the club, equalling a record held by the iconic Steven Gerrard.
In a season that will surely see him set a new Liverpool record in European action for goals scored, the No.11's effort against Leeds leaves him just seven away from becoming the Reds' leading scorer in the Premier League era to boot. Both records will be Salah's before too long, that much is certain.
"To win against one of the best teams in the world, one of the best coaches in the world is always a good feeling but we just need to carry on," Salah told BT Sport after the game.
"It's a good result and hopefully that will give us more confidence in the league and we just need to carry on. In the end we just got the result, we played a good game against a good team, so hopefully that will give us more confidence. They are one of the best in the world at the moment.
"I think it's important to give more confidence. As you can see in the league, we're not doing great but hopefully that can give us a good push and we just need to win more games in the league."
If Salah's numbers lay bare just how much of an inspirational, talismanic figure he has been during his five years on Merseyside, his latest team-mate Nunez has started in similarly goal-laden fashion. His tap-in with the last kick of the game on Tuesday was his seventh since moving from Benfica for £64m over the summer.
Only five players have registered for more during their first 15 appearances for Liverpool in Fowler, Salah, Daniel Sturridge, Fernando Torres and Diogo Jota and the striker is now scoring at a hugely impressive rate of one every 106 six minutes.
"I think he needs confidence, and the confidence that I’m talking about is when you are at a club and feel like you’re going to play week in and week out, you’re a bit more cold in front of goal,” Arsenal legend Thierry Henry said on CBS Sports on Tuesday night.
“Because he wants to please so much and do so much and he wants to wow the Liverpool fans, sometimes he rushes it. He gets the ball and he rushes it instead of controlling, going back on his right foot and finishing clean.
“I went through that. When you arrive as a big signing and just overdo it at times. Coming in after Sadio Mane, that’s not easy to do and you just overdo it instead of being calm, cool and finishing.
“He’s the type of guy where when he gets one then things will come. I don’t think he’s a finisher like Robbie Fowler, not a lot of people are finishers like Robbie Fowler in all fairness, but he has goals in him.
“He’s a bit more of a handful. Sometimes he will rush a bit like Alexis Sanchez or a young Luis Suarez when you felt like things were bounding off of him and stuff like that but when you start to master what you’re good at, then you can control it better. And I think that will happen to him. I think he can do that.”
The goalscoring form of both Nunez and Salah - two players with seven between them in the last six games - has come at an ideal time for Klopp as he continues to get to grips with the consistency issues that have plagued his team.
Like everyone else, it seems, the manager is still trying to figure out how to instill more stability into his side's performances, but the form of Salah and Nunez is at least providing some sort of regularity.
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