Adam Lallana’s intuition may not carry the same weight as yet, but a willingness to pass judgment on everything Sadio Mane will offer over the coming months bore the hallmarks of one of his former team-mate’s instinctive appraisals.

Fortunately for Liverpool, the prevailing view from within the dressing room is that their new £30million signing is more akin to Luis Suarez than El-Hadji Diouf.

Barcelona departed Wembley having been routed 4-0 as Mane assumed the role of tormentor-in-chief: opening the scoring, creating the second and combining pace and power to whet the appetite after a hitherto low-key pre-season contribution.

“I knew straight away what he was about,” said Lallana. “I knew what he was going to bring to the team, regardless of what everyone has seen in pre-season. You saw all those different parts against Barcelona, but I saw them all in his first couple of sessions.