Thomas Tuchel knows this season needs to herald a significant improvement in Chelsea's attacking play.
After the very public and expensive failure of Romelu Lukaku last time out, Tuchel's most tricky area is under extra scrutiny to succeed. The £45m arrival of Raheem Sterling from Manchester City has been one of the standout moves of this window.
For a player of Sterling's pedigree, output and age to move from the same league to a major rival is a statement of intent from new owner Todd Boehly. Tuchel was asked on the eve of the opening game at Goodison over how Chelsea's attack would now look with the 27-year-old.
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"From our point of view, [Sterling] would be a perfect fit for us in this stage of his career." Tuchel said.
"He gave us the feeling he would be absolutely happy to make this step, and step up into a new chapter and into a new club and take even more responsibility. Once we had this feeling, we tried and we succeeded."
There have been questions over how the German will look to resolve his most problematic area as Chelsea coach, with suggestions of a new formation that was briefly tried during pre-season. In terms of personnel with Lukaku gone, Kai Havertz and Armando Broja appear most likely to compete for a central role.
"I think we will be very fluid offensive play in the number nine position. It can be him [Sterling], Kai, Timo Werner or Armando Broja who is with us now. Different profiles, different type of playing.
"I think that both teams, Liverpool and Manchester City showed its possible to be very, very successful with a fluid type of offensive play on the nine position."
We got a glimpse at this idea from Tuchel in the final preseason game against Udinese last week when the trio of Sterling, Havertz and Mason Mount were deployed.
Although you would anticipate Sterling to occupy a wider role, he pretty regularly dropped behind his younger peers in a central area to arrive late into the box and get into goalscoring positions, whilst Mount and Havertz drifted wider.
Before the signing of Lukaku in 2021, Tuchel spent his first few months at Chelsea working with a less obvious focal point in an attacking trio in the 3-4-2-1 that won the Blues a Champions League title against Manchester City.
In both the semi-final and final of that season's competition, Chelsea were able to create good opportunities with Mount, Havertz and Werner buzzing around and disrupting defensive lines with the added help of N'Golo Kante, who also played well against Udinese, offering an extra body in attack from midfield.
Tuchel is unlikely to veer away from his tried and trusted 3-4-2-1 on Merseyside on Saturday and it is a safe bet to assume the Udinese trio starts again here, hopefully finding that effective fluidity Tuchel desires for a productive season.
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