Jurgen Klopp has started his final campaign with Liverpool without a holding midfielder following the simultaneous breakup of Jordan Henderson and Fabinho.
In their trip to Chelsea's Stamford Bridge 630 days ago, The Kop let Alexis Mac Allister play as a "number 6". Above the Argentine star are the couple Dominik Szoboszlai and Cody Gakpo.
During the following period, Klopp experimented with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Curtis Jones for this position, but neither of them were too excellent. That was the time Liverpool were targeting Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia with the intention of recruiting both at the same time.
The Kop agreed a £111m deal from Brighton for Caicedo and the Ecuador star just a few days away from a medical check-up.
In the end, Caicedo chose Chelsea with a £115 million contract. Not only did Chelsea lose hands in the Caicedo case, they also signed Lavia right in front of Liverpool for £58 million from Southampton.
At that time, it was thought Liverpool would be desperate because only Wataru Endo (16.2 million pounds) and Ryan Gravenberch (40 million pounds) would replace them, but in the end, they were the ones smiling, not Chelsea.
Now, Endo and especially Gravenberch played so well that they helped The Kop win the English championship for the 20th time. Chelsea will be the first team to line up to welcome the new Premier League champions in the match at Stamford Bridge in round 35.
What is more wonderful for The Kop fans to see Caicedo and Lavia standing in that fence of honor to applaud their beloved players?
"Not buying Jude Bellingham for £150 million in the summer of 2023 is Liverpool's right move. Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai have always been the regular choices. They are Liverpool's essential players this season" - Former Chelsea star Chris Sutton shared.
Jurgen Klopp himself also hinted at the same view as Sutton in December 2023, when he visited the new Anfield stadium after the upgrade.
"A few months ago, the team witnessed some strange things happening in the transfer market. So far, we can only thank God, Liverpool was so lucky, right?
You can never predict the future but I felt very good in pre-season. We have had two very good stars, Macca (Alexis Mac Allister) and Dom (Dominik Szoboszlai). Not only that, the opportunity for Ryan Gravenberch is always there.
And then the team looked at Wataru Endo, he was a special case. Endo is 30 years old but has a lot of experience when playing the role of captain of the Japanese team. We have to admit that he is not a priority, no one has chosen a 30-year-old star to play in Germany and almost be relegated.
But thank God, the coaching staff later re-evaluated many times. We really want Endo. In the end, the team has both youth and experience".
Finally, when looking back on Arne Slot's journey this season, it is undeniable that Jurgen Klopp has a very vision. The German strategist was unsuccessful in his final season when factors such as Endo, Gravenberch and Szoboszlai were not yet mature.
Then, when Arne Slot took over, everything was in place. This season, there was a time when Liverpool was the number 1 candidate on 4 fronts, enough to see how powerful the Anfield team is.
