It can be hard to praise Arne Slot's incredible start at Liverpool without sounding a bit like you're taking a swipe at Jurgen Klopp , as Curtis Jones was the first to find out . But nobody has ever meant to disparage the German, who is a bona fide Anfield legend — and recent developments have only served to underline just how good he truly was .
The club clearly feels that Klopp had enough to work with in his final Liverpool campaign, having not seen the need to equip Slot with significant numbers of new recruits. But the fate of players to have left the club recently speaks volumes.
In particular, Naby Keita is having a torrid time of things. He mutually agreed to part ways with Werder Bremen at the beginning of last month , just a year after joining from Liverpool on a free transfer.
READ MORE: Mohamed Salah told off by Liverpool staff member after Sky Sports interview
READ MORE: Liverpool news and transfers LIVE: Luis Diaz contract, Zubimendi speaks out, Mohamed Salah latest
But a move has still not materialized, and he is now being linked with a transfer to Turkey, one of the few places where the window is still open. According to BuLi News , he is in talks with Istanbul Basaksehir, while training on his own away from the rest of the Werder squad.
Should that move go ahead, Keita would join Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the Super Lig. That's if the former Liverpool and Arsenal man hasn't moved on himself by then — he's reportedly been told he can leave as well after a single season.
Of course, injuries meant this pair never played an especially central role under Klopp anyway. But the fate of the entire senior midfield from just two seasons ago, when the manager took Liverpool to within two games of an unprecedented quadruple, is similarly revealing.
Jordan Henderson , the heartbeat of the midfield at that time, is at Ajax. He arrived there via a controversial and heavily criticized move to Saudi Arabia, where he lasted just six months.
Fabinho, for so long the anchor of Klopp's midfield, moved to the Saudi Pro League in the same summer. He's still there with Al-Ittihad.
Thiago has retired from football altogether. Somehow, he's done so before James Milner , the sole representative from that Liverpool midfield who is still in the Premier League (he's now tantalizingly close to Gareth Barry's appearance record, and could get it with Brighton this season).
Even at the time, it was clear that Klopp's midfield had probably aged past its collective peak. But nobody had quite realized the extent to which it was teetering over a precipice, on the verge of a decline that would see effectively the entire engine room vanish from the upper echelons of the game within 24 months.
On paper, the core of that team should simply not have been able to carry out the demands of Klopp's intense system. But the manager squeezed every last drop from them, mounting one final push above 90 points to take Manchester City the distance and reach the Champions League final.
Klopp's last dance came last season, with a brand new midfield. But he was the first to admit that he was really there to launch "Liverpool 2.0" — the final stand with "his" team was really 2021/22.
Pep Guardiola and Real Madrid ruined the fairytale. But that doesn't change the fact that Klopp was working miracles with the tools at his disposal, reiterating his credentials as one of the best to ever do it — Slot has started brilliantly, but he knows that he has a titan to live up to at Liverpool.
Local News
Comments / 0