Liverpool almost have their full squad available and after FSG’s investment it will leave Jurgen Klopp with many tricky decisions to make
These are exciting times to be a Liverpool fan with their side still fighting to win four competitions as the 2021/22 campaign starts to head towards the run-in.
The Reds’ chances of glory will be greatly aided by the majority of the squad now being fit or back from international duty and raring to tackle the challenges which lie ahead.
This should not be underestimated in any way. Twenty-three different Liverpool players have been unavailable for a combined 187 matches this season, and many have been badly missed at times.
Of the players with a significant number of appearances this season, only Diogo Jota (who has played 29 games), Kostas Tsimikas (17) and Ibrahima Konate (14) have yet to be absent at any point.
It leaves Jurgen Klopp in a position that all but a handful of clubs in world football will envy.
Even though a matchday squad in the Premier League now contains 20 players, it’s likely the Liverpool manager will be leaving out some talented, experienced and quite likely expensive players to watch from the stands.
The subject of which 11 men would make up the Reds’ best line up is a fiercely debated topic among Kopites.
While there can never be universal agreement, nor a definitively correct answer, a recent post on the ECHO’s Facebook page proposed a first XI to which most people would make very few changes.
If we take that group as the Reds’ premium team, then the composition of the second XI is arguably more interesting to pore over.
Not least as Harvey Elliott has been inexplicably excluded, despite returning from injury with his first Liverpool goal last weekend.
But even allowing for that, there’s no room for Kaide Gordon, Takumi Minamino or Divock Origi up front, Tyler Morton who has started two Champions League matches this season in midfield, or the likes of loanees Nat Phillips and Neco Williams at the back.
As 37 players have appeared for Liverpool this season, there’s a further eight – most of whom are obviously young prospects for the future – who still don’t get a mention.
No doubt some of the lesser lights in the squad will move on this summer, but in terms of the strength and depth of options available to Klopp, things could certainly be a lot worse than they are.
Let’s take the back-up XI from the above image as being accurate, for the sake of argument. There’s an incredible amount of experience contained within it.
Granted, a lot of that is down to Roberto Firmino and James Milner, but that set of players have over 1,000 appearances for the Reds between them, with 155 goals and 144 assists to boot.
There’s three men who featured the last time Liverpool won the Champions League, two who were on the bench in Madrid that night, the most expensive Premier League player in the recent transfer window (if all add-ons are met) and several others who are well versed in international football.
Could this team compete for a European spot at the upper end of the Premier League? It’s certainly a tantalising idea to consider.
While money spent will never correlate perfectly with success – just ask Manchester United for evidence of that – Liverpool’s reserve side was not cheap to assemble.
Using the inflation-adjusted values from Paul Tomkins and Graeme Riley’s Transfer Price Index (TPI), we can see that the Reds’ second XI cost a combined £301.6m to put together in 2021/22 money.That would put them between the average value of the sides fielded by Tottenham (£257.2m) and Arsenal (£315.8m) as the sixth most expensive team in the Premier League this season.
As for Liverpool’s theoretical first XI, which actually did start the victories over Everton and Wolves in December, it’s valued at a cool £487.6m once transfer inflation is applied.
The fact the Reds’ top 22 players combined cost less than Manchester City’s starting line up for their recent win at Arsenal in TPI terms illustrates the challenge Liverpool face in trying to win the league title.
But FSG have also assembled an expensive squad of their own, with a back-up XI which would be welcomed to start by most other clubs in England.
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