When Lion City Sailors strengthened in the off-season with the remarkable capture of Brazilian marksman Anderson Lopes from J1 League powerhouses Yokohama F. Marinos, the one person at the club who perhaps might not exactly have been over the moon could have been Lennart Thy.
The incumbent spearhead of a Sailors outfit who not only won the Singapore Premier League and Singapore Cup double in 2024-25 but made history by being the first club from their nation to reach a continental final, Thy suddenly found his place in the starting XI under threat -- even coming off the back of a team-high 34-goal season.
As suspected, Thy since has had to bide his time with Lopes getting the nod for the first five games of the season.
But if the German continues to have an impact off the bench -- like he did on Thursday when he struck in in injury-time to salvage a 1-1 draw for the Sailors in their AFC Champions League Two opener away to Persib Bandung -- it might soon be impossible to keep him on the sidelines.
The situation is further complicated by the slow start Lopes has made to his time in Singapore.
The 32-year-old arrived with glittering credentials as the highest-scoring player in the top flight of Japan -- widely regarded as the continent's most-competitive domestic league -- over the past four years with 69 goals.
During that time, he claimed two Golden Boot awards in J1 and was the second-highest scorer in last season's AFC Champions League Elite -- Asia's premier club competition -- ahead of famous names such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Ivan Toney and Aleksandar Mitrović.
His signing was viewed as a massive coup by the Sailors. The fact he has failed to break his duck after five matches will be frustrating, if not alarming.
Lopes will come good. His quality is undeniable and, even before he left Marinos mid-season, he was still performing at a high level in J1.
Even ahead of the meeting with Persib, Sailors coach Aleksandar Ranković was quick to dismiss any suggestions of concern over his new weapon's lack of an immediate impact.
Yet, while the Sailors will rightfully be patient with their marquee signing, there are still games to be won -- even at this early stage of the campaign.
They will be aware how a strong start laid the foundation for their history-making run to last season's ACL Two final. Likewise, they will recall how a sluggish opening proved costly as they were eliminated from the group stage of the ASEAN Club Championship.
Ranković's sustained success with his preferred 5-2-3 formation means there is no reason why he should be looking to tinker with it for the moment. Nonetheless, it also only allows for a solitary focal point in attack.
While both Lopes and Thy are versatile enough to operate in wider attacking roles, most likely as wide target-men, it is obvious they do their best work as the spearhead.
In the Sailors' four games prior to Thursday, any involvement Thy had came at the direct expense of a substituted Lopes.
Against Persib, however, Ranković threw caution in the wind as his side trailed to Saddil Ramdani's 47th-minute opener -- bringing Thy on for defensive stalwart Hariss Harun in an adventurous switch and fielding him alongside Lopes in a two-pronged attack for the first time.
It is impossible to tell, from just those 30 minutes, if this could be a long-term solution. Even then, it may come at the cost of other the Sailors' other strengths -- such as their structural stability, as well as the freedom for their wide attackers in Maxime Lestienne and Bart Ramselaar to regularly drift infield.
What is evident is it did give the Persib defence another problem on their hands. A different one at that.
Lopes was no longer outnumbered and was able to drop deep to do more in the build-up, while Thy provided a new and stronger aerial target for those hopeful deliveries that were sent into the box with increasing regularity as time was running out.
In the second minute of added time, just as Persib looked content to see out the remainder of the tie, one of Lestienne's trademark deliveries from the right landed perfectly on the head of Thy, who -- as he did many times last term -- made no mistake in guiding the ball into the back of the net to earn his team a crucial share of the spoils.
What Ranković does from here will be intriguing.
In the league, when the Sailors are expected to be the dominant side more often than not, there is certainly the potential for further -- and prolonged -- experimentation.
Still, on the continental and regional front, they might be best served sticking to what has worked in the past.
It is also worth noting that the ASEAN Club Championship, where the Sailors lost their opening game to Johor Darul Ta'zim last month, only allows for seven foreigners. In that defeat to JDT, both Thy and Lestienne were left out completely from the match day squad.
When Ranković has to next pick who leads his line if he sticks with just one striker, and it could come as soon as Monday in their league meeting with Tanjong Pagar United, it will be a case of choosing between the new star who just needs patience and faith, and the tried-and-tested stalwart who continues to deliver even with limited opportunities.
It will be a headache -- but a welcome one for Ranković and the Sailors to have.