Luis Suarez
The striker's build-up play was again impressive, but his pained expression towards the end of the match told a familiar story. Suarez knows he needs to be more ruthless, but does he know how to make that happen?
Steven Gerrard
The elephant in the room at Liverpool is that their captain and talisman for so many years may not be up to the task of adapting to the new manager's system.
With the lowest pass accuracy of any outfield player in a red shirt at The Hawthorns, Gerrard looked out of his depth alongside the lively Joe Allen, who buzzed around the England midfielder with far more game intelligence and purpose.
Keeping it simple has never been Gerrard's forte and nor has it needed to be under previous Liverpool managers. At the peak of his powers, it would have been wrong to constrain the captain's drive and energy and, as one of the best midfielders in the world, the team was rightly built around his strengths. When Liverpool finished second in 2008/09, Gerrard ended the season with 16 Premier League goals - his highest ever total - and 24 in all competitions; it feels like an awfully long time ago now.
The captain is now 32, and with no Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano to allow him the freedom he once enjoyed - or funds to invest in similar quality - Liverpool are having to re-build step by step. We saw Gerrard lead Roy Hodgson's two banks of four in brilliant fashion at Euro 2012, but adapting to the greater demands imposed by Rodgers' fluid system is a far more difficult task.
Brendan Rodgers
While it will take time for Rodgers to impress his ideas on Liverpool, he should have learned from Andre Villas-Boas's dismissal at Chelsea that an appropriate balance is required between moving forward in the desired manner and avoiding painful embarrassment. If Liverpool finish in the bottom half this season, we all know that Rodgers will be forced out, so the manager cannot afford too many results in the same vein as Saturday.
West Brom's first goal was a screamer and the second revealed teething issues in Liverpool's back-line. However, Rodgers must accept the blame for a two-goal deficit becoming three and three threatening to become four or five after he replaced midfield anchor Lucas with Joe Cole and continued to instruct Glen Johnson and Martin Kelly to push forward down the flanks.
Clearly anxious not to lose his first Premier League match in charge, Rodgers made a series of poor decisions following Daniel Agger's red card and Liverpool ended the match in total disarray.
In many ways the manager will not be looking forward to the tough run of difficult fixtures awaiting the Reds, but with games coming thick and fast it also presents them with an opportunity to put this early nightmare behind them. It must be remembered that Liverpool have won their opening-day match only twice in the last nine seasons, while West Brom beat Chelsea, drew with Man City and ran Man United and Arsenal close at The Hawthorns last season.
Martin Skrtel and Daniel Agger
Despite Rodgers' assertion that Agger knows exactly how he wants the team to play, Liverpool's centre-back pairing was all at sea on Saturday. The transition from playing within five yards of each other for the whole of last season to adapting to a 30-yard chasm as the wing-backs tear forward is clearly something that will take Agger and Skrtel quite a bit of time.