They may have missed out on the Premier League and Champions League at the end of the season but don’t let anyone tell you that Liverpool’s 2021-22 campaign was not successful.
For the Merseysiders played every possible game they could have contested over nine and a half months and lifted two of the four trophies they were in contention for.
Not only does that show it was very harsh and inaccurate for former player Dirk Kuyt to brand their season a failure, but it also shows what a talented squad Jurgen Klopp has built at Anfield and it is clear that strength in depth was a key part in their success.
So, after departures and arrivals in recent weeks, the key questions is, do they need to strengthen?
This SBOTOP observer doesn’t think so. For even before the movement of recent weeks, the Liverpool squad appeared stronger in numbers than their closest rivals, newly crowned champions Manchester City and Chelsea.
Yes, the club has said farewell to the lightning Sadio Mane, faithful servant Divock Origi and Takumi Minamino is set to follow but the arrivals of Darwin Nunez from Benfica for what could be a club record £85 million and young Portuguese talent Fabio Carvalho – as well as promising full-back Calvin Ramsay – more than makes up for that.
Quantity is being replaced by quality.
All this from a team which contributed six of the 11 players in the PFA Team of the Year.
In that sense then, I see very little change for Liverpool next term.
I do, however, sense a slightly different approach in the way they attack with Nunez proving more of an out-and-out centre forward than the fluidity of Mane who often patrolled the wide areas.
Of course Mane, described by Klopp as one of the club’s modern greats after signing for German champions Bayern Munich, is quality and they will naturally miss a player who enjoyed a stellar six years at Anfield, winning every major honour available. Indeed, the Senegal international has showed a positional versatility few possess, excelling in all areas and his form remaining so consistent that his move to Bavaria undoubtedly leaves one of the club’s greatest forward lines shorn of a key component – one who has scored 120 goals in 269 games.
Yet in his place they have swooped for one of Europe’s most prolific marksmen last term.
With footballer of the year Mohamed Salah, ably assisted by January recruit Luis Diaz, and possibly Carvalho able to do that, that attacking quality will still be there, but I also expect a more direct approach when required with Nunez and Diogo Jota able to fulfil that role of spearheading the attack.
Elsewhere, the depth is also clear and, if there was ever to be a repeat of the worst case scenario from two seasons ago, it’s hard to imagine them suffering the same way as they did when accomplished defender Virgil van Dijk was ruled out for much of 2020-21.
For example, Joel Matip, Ibrahima Konate and Joe Gomez are all vying for a slot alongside the Dutch international, while at full-back there is real cover for both first-choice Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold in the form of veteran James Milner, new signing Ramsay and Kostas Tsimikas.
Indeed, should the club decide to let young guns Neco Williams, Nat Phillips and midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain leave, the squad will be no weaker.
Klopp has truly re-established Liverpool as comfortably one of the most consistently dangerous sides in European football and an example of how other clubs should be run.
With a player ready to step in and do a job in every position, and several players waiting in the wings in some areas, it’s fair to say that Liverpool’s future appears in good hands.
And that is why you should still expect them to produce Premier League highlights next term and why they will be there or thereabouts in the title reckoning when it comes to the Premier League betting odds.
Liverpool may have ended last season on a disappointing note but they will still be primed and ready to go again in the hunt for prizes when the new campaign resumes.
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