Jurgen Klopp’s farewell tour is drawing to a close and Liverpool chiefs Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes will be busy boys as they attempt to ensure they don’t experience a Manchester United-like post-legacy manager slump.
Despite a very commendable effort in the Premier League title race, Klopp’s last dance all but ended with a stumble at Everton, and whether it’s Arne Slot or some other poor sap faced with the impossible job of following the much-loved manager, they will be tasked with continuing the rebuild started but not finished by their predecessor.
We’ve done them the solid of picking out five first-team regulars they should consider selling or discarding this summer. They won’t be popular choices, so in the interest of balance we’ve also picked five players for Liverpool to build around.
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Curtis Jones
He was excellent at the end of last season and carried that fine form into the current campaign, keeping summer signing Ryan Gravenberch out of the team with his performances, cementing his place in Jurgen Klopp’s best midfield alongside Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai. Jones looked to be repaying the great faith his manager had showed in him.
But his form has dipped significantly in recent weeks, and on this occasion Football365’s bid to summon the very best of Curtis Jones has as yet reaped no reward. He was hooked after an hour in the crushing defeat to Everton on Wednesday, contributing little else other than petty fouls to grant the opposition chances to utilise their greatest weapon, providing further ammo for those who question what his real worth is to Liverpool.
The composite parts of a brilliant footballer are all there – he presses well, can score, dribble and take the ball in tight spaces – but combines them infrequently enough to raise doubts as to whether he will ever be good enough to be a staple in a team challenging for titles. He’s still only 23, but this is his fourth full season in the Liverpool first team, and at some point we have to expect the volatility of youth to make way for consistency at the top level.
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Andrew Robertson
The law of heavy metal football under Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool dictates that a year be added to the age of any of the club’s players per two years of service. So after seven years at Anfield, Andrew Robertson is in fact 33-and-a-half. It looks like all of that charging up and down the touchline has caught up to him.
Robertson was injured for 13 of Liverpool’s 15-game unbeaten run in the middle of the season, during which Joe Gomez thrived at left-back, no Liverpool player has seen more goals conceded per 90 minutes while on the pitch than the Scotland international (1.24), and he’s contributed just one goal and two assists, comfortably his worst return in a campaign for Liverpool.
Mohamed Salah
Virgil van Dijk’s take after their defeat to Everton also rings true with regard to the Liverpool careers of Salah and his manager. “We can’t let the season end like this,” the Reds skipper said.
Klopp and Salah owe so much to each other. Liverpool wouldn’t have had half of their success under the German boss had Salah not joined from Roma in 2017. Deemed something of a gamble at the time given his lack of impact at Chelsea, Salah has become a Liverpool and Premier League legend, with only Ian Rush (339) and Roger Hunt (262) scoring more than his 210 goals for the club, and of players in the top 100 all-time goalscorers for Liverpool, only Luis Suarez (0.62) has a better goals-per-game ratio than Salah (0.61). He’s been a phenomenon.
He was also excellent for the majority of this season, and barring a significant increase in the size of barn doors and banjos to aid Darwin Nunez in the remaining games, will finish as top scorer for the seventh consecutive campaign. He will be impossible to replace but the time has come for him to go.
Liverpool will be compensated handsomely for losing a player with a year left on his contract and Salah can see out his days in Saudi Arabia, as was apparently his wish last summer.
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Ibrahima Konate
Last season we were all wondering who Liverpool would sign as Konate’s new centre-back partner. The Frenchman’s place was assured as we watched Van Dijk’s slow decline. Incredibly, we’re now faced with the prospect of Van Dijk – after a season in which he’s been Liverpool’s most improved player – outlasting the centre-back eight years his junior. Konate has not had a good time of it.
Brought in to cope with the physicality of Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Everton in general on Wednesday, Konate did anything but, having been used sparingly in the lead up to that game thanks to the emergence of Jarell Quansah.
Liverpool will hope Van Dijk doesn’t leave with Klopp this summer, which is a distinct possibility given he has just a year left on his contract, because that will not only mean they’ll have to sign at least two new centre-backs, but also that they will have to either play both newbies together, one of them with the inexperienced Quansah, or – perhaps worst of all – one of them with Konate.
We would be really concerned by the dynamic of Konate being the senior defender in a partnership. He very much looks as though he needs to be led rather than lead, and without Van Dijk around, may even confirm suspicions that he’s not actually all that.
Alisson
We’re well aware that this won’t be a popular choice among Liverpool fans, many of whom will likely still be convinced that Alisson is the best goalkeeper in the Premier League. Guys, he’s really not. He may not even be the best goalkeeper at Liverpool anymore.
According to our estimation (or rather the brilliant FBRef’s), he’s the 13th best in the top flight, while Caoimhin Kelleher’s tenth. And those questioning the use of a metric which essentially rates goalkeepers based on a combination of luck and ability to stop shots, may accept it in the knowledge that Alisson finished top last season and has been in the Premier League’s top five in four of his five previous seasons at Anfield. Emiliano Martinez is currently leading the way and has clearly been the best goalkeeper this term.
Previously a godsend as the last line of defence behind a high Liverpool line, he often now looks tentative and low on confidence, and has made mistakes this season – like the one against Arsenal – that he previously seemed immune to.
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