If the Premier League itself made for difficult reading for Liverpool last season, the Fair Play table was similarly disappointing. Kept off top spot by champions Arsenal, Mikel Arteta's side were the only team to have fewer red and yellow cards than Liverpool, who amassed 57 yellows and one straight red for Dominik Szoboszlai in farcical circumstances in the 103rd minute of the defeat to Manchester City at Anfield.
Of course, the fact that Arsenal won the league for the first time in 22 years indicates how a sensible approach to discipline can help secure major trophies. But that felt like a concerted effort on the part of Arteta, having seen his side's title challenge of the previous campaign majorly undercut by three red cards by mid-October.
Those particular games, against Brighton, Manchester City and Bournemouth, saw Arsenal drop seven points. Liverpool eventually won the crown by 10, with four matches to spare, highlighting the impact of those early dismissals.
For all the debate around their particular brand of football, the Gunners can never be accused of lacking physicality or an edge, meaning their pristine record was clearly by the focused design of Arteta.
For Liverpool, though, their runners-up spot in the fair-play stakes perhaps only highlights the lack of aggression, intensity and fighting spirit within the squad during a difficult campaign that equalled the most defeats in a decade with 12 in total.
A lack of fight was regularly cited as a complaint when discussing the Reds' performances last season. Their inability to seemingly rage against their fate so often contributed to why they lost a dozen times and just about scraped into the Champions League places with a fifth-placed finish on the final day of the campaign.
Think back to the incident that ended Conor Bradley's season, when he was rolled off the pitch by Gabriel Martinelli, who was, admittedly, unaware as to the severity of the Northern Ireland defender's serious knee injury in the moment.
After obnoxiously dropping the ball on his opposite number who was prone on the turf, Martinelli, who was seemingly convinced the Liverpool man was playacting to preserve a point, actually pushed the stricken Bradley off the pitch in an attempt to take a quick throw in the dying stages.
With the exception of Ibrahima Konate, who came over with a forceful push on the Arsenal man, the Reds' collective reaction was subdued considering the actions of Martinelli, who later apologised. A penny for the thoughts of legendary names like Steven Gerrard and Graeme Souness as they watched Alisson Becker politely try to explain to his Brazil international team-mate Martinelli that Bradley was not in fact play-acting.
Speaking after the game, the post-match question offered an opportunity for Arne Slot to condemn the actions of the Gunners winger and get wavering support back onside at a time when the football was tough to watch and results were, at best, indifferent.
Instead, the Dutchman took an opportunity to bemoan time-wasting tactics in the Premier League and offered the view that his team were not one of the worst offenders.
"I don't know Gabriel Martinelli, but he comes across as a nice guy," said Slot. "I think the problem for him - and it's a problem in general in football - is that there is so much time-wasting and players pretending that they are injured in the final parts of the game and during the game, that you can sometimes be annoyed if you want to try to score a goal that you think the player is time-wasting.
"You cannot ask Martinelli to think so clear in the 94th minute. I am 100% sure that if he knew what the injury might be, then he would never do that. But it doesn't look great if he has the injury which we fear he might have.
"But time-wasting, diving... I have seen it happen against us so many times this season that I can understand that Martinelli might have thought that this is time-wasting as well. He couldn't have thought about 'this is Liverpool, they don't do this'.
Of course, in the list of shortcomings last season at Anfield, such gripes may only seem minor, but it's tough to fight for the game's biggest honours if there is a lack of fight.
It's perhaps one of the factors that makes Andoni Iraola's appointment so intriguing. A more front-footed and aggressive style of play is now being sought at Liverpool and the Spaniard's teams have always been fashioned in this way.
In the Fair Play table, his side ranked a lowly 17th, with 88 yellows and four red cards. Only Sunderland, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea showcased more indiscipline.
While such a statistic in isolation is not exactly sought after, it does at least indicate a willingness to scrap.
For too long, Liverpool have had an attitude problem; Iraola might just be the man to change that.
