Liverpool Football Club limped into the current international break on the back of three narrow defeats to Crystal Palace, Galatasaray and Chelsea.
They went from unbeaten this season to now looking up at Arsenal in the Premier League and already behind the eight-ball in the Champions League. The break probably came at a good time for the club, allowing them to reset and center themselves once again.
Injuries, patchy form and constant lineup tinkering from Arne Slot has hindered the early returns of the season.
There is still so much time to get back on track, but Liverpool must answer these questions following the break to take steps in that direction.
1. Can Isak carry the attack into November?
Having missed the entirety of the summer preseason and most of fall, it was always going to take some time for Isak to truly find his feet at Anfield.
While he does have a goal and an assist to his name, he has not taken the league by storm as many would be looking for from a record-breaking signing such as he is.
Monday saw more difficult results for the star striker as he could not fire Sweden to a needed victory in their 1-0 defeat to Kosovo. Sweden fired their national team manager early on Tuesday. Isak was not at his best either, but that could still be down to rust, however that excuse won't be viable much longer.
As Liverpool gets back into action, the winter schedule is going to be full of marquee matches, starting with Manchester United this coming Sunday.
While Hugo Ekitike has been quite good to begin his Reds' career, there is no denying Slot needs Isak to find his clinical finishing touch sooner than later.
2. Can Slot find the right combination?
With a summer of so much change within the squad, it was expected that the Dutch coach would need to do go through some trial and error before he found the right lineup on a consistent basis.
However, with injuries to key players throughout the squad, he has been forced into even more changes than he would have probably liked.
We've seen players like Dominik Szoboszlai playing a large portion of the young season at right-back while the midfiled has seen a group of players get their shot to start. The lackluster performances from Alexis Mac Allister have not aided in the midfield selection process in particular.
As for the attack, with the addition of Isak, we have yet to have an attacking group turn out together on a week-to-week basis.
Brief but impactful cameos from Federico Chiesa and Rio Ngumoha have only added to the mouths to feed in attack, not to mention shuffling a confident Ekitike to the bench.
He needs players to get fit, but also to decide on a tactical formation that he wants seen implemented every single time out. Right now, it feels like there is no true organization on the pitch. If he corrects this, then Liverpool could look like one of the best sides in Europe once again.
3. Will Liverpool end October back in fine form?
The Reds have four matches, across three competitions, to close out the month of October. It begins with the big fixture on Sunday against United.
That is followed by a Champions League meeting against German outfit Eintracht Frankfurt, then back to the Premier League against Brentford before we finish the month against our bogey team, Crystal Palace in the League Cup.
Those are all key matches in the grand scope of how the rest of the winter go could at Anfield. Wins in those games would see Liverpool recapture the aura they have lost and be right back on track.
These opponents could all be tricky in their own way, so Slot must make sure he gets his lineup construction on point and the players need to execute the vision flawlessly.
Having a handful of meaningful matches in such a short space of time, 10 days from the United match to Palace in the cup, could be a blessing. It'll be all focused on the football and there will be no time to overthink things.
If they lose a few of these, it could mean the rest of 2025 might fall apart much quicker than anyone would have expected.
The first two questions getting answered could go a long way towards making sure this is a positive answer for Liverpool as well.