Zinedine Zidane called Liverpool 'complete team' with undeniable Mohamed Salah point

For a European soccer team to be truly successful for a sustained period of time it usually needs one legitimate superstar to carry them to the peak.

In recent years, Barcelona had that with Lionel Messi , Real Madrid had it with Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester City have have it with Kevin de Bruyne. Of course, these players have certainly not done it themselves - with their rosters being loaded with talent across the team - but the levels of individual greatness on the aforementioned has been to overcompensate for potential weaknesses.

Many would argue that Liverpool have been reliant on Mohamed Salah over the past seven years - their top goalscorer in each season while scoring over 20 each season.

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But perhaps unlike great teams who they have been competing with in recent years, Liverpool's strengths have truly relied in what they have across the field - rather than being dependent on its stars - while keeping the same core group of players together for an extended period of time.

The likes of Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andy Robertson and Diogo Jota have been key around their success - all performing at an extremely high level while enhancing the play of others around them. That's something Zidane had noticed when preparing his team to face Liverpool in 2021 - three years after they had defeated them in the 2018 Champions League final while being impressed with their strength in depth.

Speaking at the time, Zidane said: "They're a complete team. Some people will mention the three forwards, and it's true that they're really good, but I think they're a strong, solid unit. I'd rather focus on the team. After that, yes, the three forwards are really efficient. We'll have to be alert."

Of course, Jurgen Klopp had been the man to put that team together, working alongside sporting director Michael Edwards to exploit the market - finding undervalued players who the German boss was able to mould into his system while many had made improvements that were not thought capable.

After Klopp left the team this offseason, Liverpool convinced Edwards to return, who had played a part in choosing his Arne Slot as new head coach - who is off to a perfect start with three wins from three.

Liverpool fans have been critical of the backroom staff at the club, after only signing two players this summer in Federico Chiesa and Giorgi Mamardashvili - who will remain on loan at Valencia this season - but with the aforementioned core players remaining at the club and still performing to a high level, it makes it tough to argue who exactly they could have signed that would have made a significant improvement to their team.

With the likes of Alisson, Robertson and Salah on the wrong side of 30, the Reds' approach to replacing them will be intriguing moving forward. Will they look for direct alternatives, or look to replace them in the aggregate by strengthening other areas of their team - in what would a move away from the overall approach that Zidane had praised them for.