At full-time one slumped to his knees and the other stared into space, and then long after the final whistle as the Manchester United players completed what was almost a half lap of honour, the pair of them were well behind their teammates, distraught.
They had tried their all here but they were let down by their more illustrious teammates.
Harvey Elliott, in from the start again, was bright and industrious and looked to be the player most likely to cause an assured United defence to panic every time he got the ball.
His good mate Fabio Carvalho, the youngster added to the squad to supplement it and give it an extra bit of attacking verve off the bench, had done just that for the 17 minutes he was on the pitch.
Neither young man had let himself down, but there was no consolation here.
The pair have yet to taste anything other than frustration this season, with Carvalho still to win a game in his short Reds career.
But why should it all be on them?
Yes the Reds are a squad decimated by injuries that the moment, but the folly of relying on Thiago, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita now looks to be hitting hard. In the case of the Guinean it is a case of fool me once shame on me, fool me... how many times now? He had looked primed to start here but was conspicuous by his absence.
Because of that there was bench duty for the likes of Bobby Clark, Stefan Bajcetic and Harvey Davies, a goalkeeper when Adrian was already there.
Fabinho was there too but he hasn't been playing well, picking a poor time to have a dip in form just as the rest of the Reds midfield either does the same or hits the treatment table.
And so it is teenager Elliott who has to be the creative, attacking spark, and not an already world-class No.8 that the Reds could have moved for this summer.
And then it is Carvalho who has to provide from the bench when the game is all in front of him. He's faced the same massed ranks defending for their lives each time he's played now.
Jurgen Klopp will tell you that you can't block development, and you can only produce world class players if you give them the chances when they are young. But is this really the time? It has never been harder to win the Premier League or the other big prizes and any slip-up is punished. This creaking Liverpool squad have had three.
So you can feel for Elliott and Carvalho, laud their displays, particularly Elliott's, and commiserate with them when they end up on the losing side thanks to poor performances across the pitch.
But then you have to question, should they have been put in this position in the first place?
