It’s the time of the year where everyone has a tendency to get all reflective. It’s no different when it comes to Liverpool.
Jürgen Klopp can certainly look back on a year of two halves, so to speak. There’s still an away fixture with Burnley to navigate before 2023 draws to a close, but Liverpool can reflect this Christmas on a highly productive start to the season, one which has it firmly in title contention.
Yet from January to June, the picture was far more bleak. There was a belated rally, as Liverpool threatened to repeat its 2020/21 trick and salvage Champions League football, but the best efforts of Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold — with the right-back moved to a new position which looks set to become a staple of Klopp’s ‘2.0’ side — were only enough to rescue fifth.
That meant a season in the Europa League. However, this is at least one of numerous pieces of silverware for which Liverpool is still in the running: things look poised for a potentially bountiful 2024. Here’s what would happen in an ideal new year for the Reds
Mohamed Salah signs new deal
We’ve definitely had this Christmas wish before. But that’s the reality of the ‘long-term’ deal Salah finally signed in the summer of 2022 — only adding two years onto his existing terms, it was always going to be a ‘kick the can down the road’ kind of move.
Obviously, FSG won’t have been ‘hoping’ to see signs of decline from Salah by now. Indeed, by shattering its wage structure, it was signaling its belief that the Egyptian could carry on at the highest level for a significant period of time. But Liverpool might nonetheless have thought the contract question would be a little easier this time around.
Instead, Salah remains one of Liverpool’s key performers, having registered a goal involvement in almost every game this season. Throw in the added complication of transfer interest from Saudi Arabia, and his future very much needs to be up for discussion again as a matter of urgency in 2024.
While there is a fleeting temptation to cash in, that’s quickly suppressed by the realization that nobody could adequately replace what Salah does for this Liverpool side. He is a bastion of reliability, both in terms of his availability and his goals. All the cash in the world, even for a player who turns 32 in summer, would not be enough to prevent his departure weakening Klopp’s team.
January transfer activity
Liverpool has made a recent habit of finding value in the January transfer market. The old adage goes that it’s a bad time to shop, but Klopp has added Cody Gakpo and Luis Díaz in the past two winters.
That’s strange in a way, because Klopp seems to buy into the belief that the transfer market is harder to navigate in January. He used that as a reason why Liverpool probably won’t pursue a defender:
“As long as other clubs don’t put under the Christmas tree for us and say ‘take it and use it as long as you need it’…” he remarked, via This is Anfield. “They all cost money, it must be the right player. Tell me a club which wants to sell a top, top, top center-half.”
The insinuation is that clubs will not be open to doing business for truly elite players mid-season — or if they are, they will demand a far higher price. But Liverpool has now repeatedly defied that logic.
It should look to do so again. While Klopp might insist he is okay with four fit center-backs — one of whom is youngster Jarell Quansah — it’s clear that this puts too much strain on a roster of notoriously injury-prone players. With long-term heirs needed for the injured Joël Matip and even Virgil van Dijk anyway, a browse in the January sales would be a shrewd start to 2024 as Liverpool looks to maintain a title push.
Jürgen Klopp keeps his promise
This is not the first December where things have looked pretty rosy for Liverpool. At Christmas 2019, it was hard to see how anything could go wrong.
Three months later, the pandemic hit, with Liverpool a single win away from confirming a first ever Premier League title. Klopp’s side survived the scare of total league cancellation, but still ended up lifting the trophy under disappointing, sanitized circumstances. At the time, Klopp made a promise. He pledged that Liverpool would have a proper celebration as soon as possible:
“I promise we will have the party which everybody deserves at an appropriate time. Pretty much the first possibility we will use to do exactly what everybody deserves.”
But there has hardly been a chance. By the time regulations were lifted in full, Liverpool was already deep into a hugely underwhelming 2020/21 campaign, and the moment for a party dedicated to the title had long since passed.
The hope then turned to a party for some future success, which could serve as a cathartic, all-encompassing celebration. And Klopp was able to deliver in part when Liverpool did the domestic double — but that parade came on the back of Premier League and Champions League heartbreak.
Really, the only way Klopp can fully keep his promise is with another league title, one which Liverpool fans can finally celebrate properly with the team. There’s no getting that 2020 title back, but perhaps 2024 can be made even better — maybe even with a Europa League and some domestic success thrown in for good measure.
