Dominik Szoboszlai is a certain starter but it might be the bench for Ryan Gravenberch! Ranking Liverpool's midfield options after summer rebuild
The Reds' engine room has been completely overhauled during the summer, meaning Jurgen Klopp now has plenty of options available to him
Liverpool left themselves with an awful lot of work to do this summer. As manager Jurgen Klopp put it, the Reds had to «reinvent one of the most successful midfields this club ever had». Of course, they only had themselves to blame in that regard.
An awful lot of time and effort was wasted on wooing Jude Bellingham, who ended up joining Real Madrid for far less money than a panicking Liverpool offered Brighton for Moises Caicedo. By that stage, the fans were as confused as they were frustrated.
They had been buoyed by the pace at which Liverpool had wrapped up deals for Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai — an apparent sign that under new sporting director Jorg Schmadtke the club was finding its feet again in the transfer market.
However, Liverpool then exacerbated their midfield problem by letting both Fabinho and Jordan Henderson move to Saudi Arabia without having a single replacement lined up. Alarm bells started ringing around Anfield, as both Caicedo and Romeo Lavia — their top two defensive midfield transfer targets — both joined Chelsea.
Schmadtke, though, managed to turn things around in the final two weeks of the market by returning to his native Germany to sign Wataru Endo from Stuttgart, and Ryan Gravenberch from Bayern Munich. The pair may be at opposite ends of their respective careers, but both look like bargain buys.
Consequently, Klopp is in far better form than he was ahead of the opening game of the Premier League season at Stamford Bridge, where he played Cody Gakpo in midfield alongside Mac Allister and Szoboszlai with predictably unimpressive results.
«The midfield
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