New Signings Will Elevate Klopp's Liverpool 2.0 – Which Is Already Half-Brilliant
So many important things learnt in the final 20 games of the season, now new signings can complete the reinvention
One of the great things about the second half of the past season – for 2022/23 is now over – was how many exciting new things we learnt, after the only things we learnt in the first half of the season was how, without some changes, it could be a very long season indeed.
People said it was a crap season, but no. It was half a crap season, followed by lots of exciting developments and thrilling games. Several new pieces of the jigsaw were put in place in a way that wouldn’t have happened had the team limped to 4th with the usual XI (not that that XI looked capable anymore, albeit partly from fatigue, but also age).
It's never easy to go through a transitional season – and that's what it turned into – but as I will show, the Reds learnt so much (as did we as fans) in a season where the only true downside in the end was the lack of Champions League football for next season, in relation to the team improving in the future.
But the team has already improved; it's already new, as I noted in February, but as I'll sum up here in more detail. And new players will arrive, to suit the system; hungrier younger players with experience will help lift a team whose midfield legs had gone.
Jürgen Klopp's team stopped looking like a Jürgen Klopp team. Then, they looked outstanding again at times, and harder to beat, on the road to Klopp's Liverpool 2.0.
And while some good players have departed, none are from the first XI; some weren't even making the match-day 20. Only Roberto Firmino – now looking injury prone but also ruthless in front of goal – will be genuinely missed, and I think Cody Gakpo has shown that he is more than ready to replace him.
But with further transfer smartness – in this in-depth article I'll look at three specific players who seem to be lined up (and where the fees seem reasonable) – tactical evolutions and youth development, the Reds look like being ready to be elite once more.
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