As icy flakes curled in the unforgiving wind and caked Melwood’s exterior, thoughts within the training complex circled back to Roberto Firmino’s proficiency in more punishing conditions while at Hoffenheim.

Liverpool had wondered if an export from Maceio, a north-east city in Brazil with postcard-worthy beaches and a tropical monsoon climate, could hurdle glacial weather with the ease in which he muddled markers. That box, as with every other criteria during an exhaustive reconnaissance of the forward prior to pursuing him, was checked in the affirmative.

Reduced visibility and a snow-blanketed pitch during a blizzard at Augsburg in February 2015 proved no inconvenience to Firmino’s abilities; his usual blend of panache and function supplemented with a looped backward header. In the same month a year earlier, under a confetti of sleet, Stuttgart slipped and were stifled - not by the swampy Rhein-Neckar Arena surface, but the attacker’s intuitive movement and artistic mischief.

Each Hoffenheim goal in that 4-1 Baden-Wurttemberg derby victory had Firmino’s fingerprints on them; he crafted the first three before striking the final blow from the penalty spot in a performance that underlined how decisive he could be in and out of possession.

“It’s like he’s made of steel,” was part of Liverpool’s analysis on the Brazil international’s capacity to adapt to varying situations without a stir. “It doesn’t matter what the weather is like, what the pitch is like, or even who the opponents are - Firmino plays in the same determined way. With his attitude, work ethic and desire alongside his varied abilities, he could become anything - there is no ceiling.”

Given such a finding, and the archive of Firmino’s excellence at Anfield since, it is easy to now appreciate Liverpool’s swiftness in concluding a £29 million deal for him in June 2015.

Rewind, though, and the fee was roundly condemned plus there was a perception that the business was based on impulse.