Liverpool 2022/23 season review: The Reds get caught between eras
For much of Jurgen Klopp’s reign, Liverpool have been seen as a force of sensibility and inevitability.
They challenged for the Premier League in three of the last four seasons. They clawed themselves back from the brink in the other.
But this was a year too far for the Reds. Their fast-and-loose style caught up with them and they have paid a hefty price – Thursday night football for the 2023/24 season.
Here’s 90min’s review of an up-and-down (mostly down) season for Liverpool.
Liverpool literally left everything on the pitch in 2021/22, playing every game possible.
They took home two domestic cups but fell narrowly short of Premier League and Champions League glory. The only way for the Reds to have been more successful this time around would have been to simply win two more games.
Sadio Mane ended his six-year stay at Anfield and was effectively replaced by the in-demand Darwin Nunez, seen as the counter to new Manchester City striker Erling Haaland.
|
Date |
Player |
Signed from |
Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1 July 2022 |
Darwin Nunez |
Benfica |
£86m |
|
1 July 2022 |
Calvin Ramsay |
Aberdeen |
£6.5m |
|
1 July 2022 |
Fabio Carvalho |
Fulham |
£7.7m |
|
1 September 2022 |
Arthur |
Juventus |
Loan |
|
1 January 2023 |
Cody Gakpo |
Liverpool |
£40m |
|
Date |
Player |
Sold to |
Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
|
30 June 2022 |
Loris Karius |
Newcastle |
Free |
|
30 June 2022 |
Divock Origi |
Milan |
Free |
|
30 June 2022 |
Sheyi Ojo |
Cardiff |
Free |
|
30 June 2022 |
Ben Woodburn |
Preston |
Free |
|
1 July 2022 |
Sadio Mane |
Bayern Munich |
£27.5m |
|
1 July 2022 |
Takumi Minamino |
Monaco |
£13m |
|
1 July 2022 |
Conor Bradley |
Bolton |
Loan |
|
11 July 2022 |
Neco Williams |
Nottingham Forest |
£16m |
|
19 July 2022 |
Ben Davies |
Rangers |
£3m |
|
19 July 2022 |
Rhys Williams |
Blackpool |
Loan |
|
1 August 2022 |
Tyler Morton |
Blackburn |
Loan |
|
30 August 2022 |
Sepp van den Berg |
Schalke |
Loan |
Mohamed Salah
Liverpool may not have been at their rock-and-roll best this year, but Mohamed Salah more than played his part.
Suggestions that he would coast after penning a new and lucrative contract last summer fell flat, with the Egyptian King ending the season with 30 goals and 16 assists in 51 games across all competitions.
With Mane out the door, Salah had to get used to playing with new two co-stars in Nunez and Cody Gakpo, eventually ending the season finding some rhythm with the Dutchman.
Honourable mentions: Alisson, Andy Robertson
Darwin Nunez vs Real Madrid
LIVERPOOL HAVE LIFT-OFF! 💥
That is just cheeky from Darwin Núñez! 👏#UCL pic.twitter.com/spapaQcfbZ
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) February 21, 2023
If you judged Liverpool’s season based on the number of crackers they scored, you’d think they’d actually have had a chance of the quadruple again.
But that’s not how football works, unfortunately. You have to be good at both ends of the pitch.
Salah again has quite the array of finishes, as does Trent Alexander-Arnold and even Harvey Elliott. But this pick goes to Darwin Nunez for his deft flick against Real Madrid in the Champions League, which in the moment made even the most carefree of neutrals go ‚corrrrrr‘.
Honourable mentions: Trent Alexander-Arnold vs Man City, Trent Alexander-Arnold vs Bournemouth, Harvey Elliott vs Bournemouth, Mohamed Salah vs Man City, Darwin Nunez vs Real Madrid, Mohamed Salah vs Man Utd, Trent Alexander-Arnold vs Leicester
Liverpool 7-0 Man Utd
Klopp’s men may have eventually fallen short in the race for a top-four finish but they at least were able to give their most bitter of rivals a damn good thrashing in a year where they were on completely opposite trajectories.
It was only 1-0 at half-time, but after another 45 minutes, history had been written and the memes had been created.
Honourable mentions: Liverpool 9-0 Bournemouth, Rangers 1-7 Liverpool, Liverpool 1-0 Man City, Leeds 1-6 Liverpool
You could make the case for Nunez, but Cody Gakpo has looked a far more natural fit at Anfield since his winter arrival.
Klopp has rightfully been criticised for having more of a say in recent transfers, but his vision to convert the Netherlands international into a Roberto Firmino-style number nine began to bear fruit during the final stretch of the season, particularly across their seven-match winning run from April into May.
Honourable mentions: Darwin Nunez, Fabio Carvalho
Part of the reason behind Liverpool’s regression is very few of their already existing squad members improved this year. In fact, most of them got significantly worse.
But at least they have some hope for the future in Stefan Bajcetic, who displayed a remarkable maturity and aggression before picking up a season-ending injury in March.
Honourable mentions: Harvey Elliott, Trent Alexander-Arnold the midfielder
It’s really hard to pick just one disappointment above all else, so for that reason, we’re defaulting to Jurgen Klopp.
There were so many players who did not live up to expectation, so many signings who didn’t gel as needed, so many performances where you wondered how Liverpool have been so successful over the last few years.
The Reds caved in on far too many occasions and allowed the opposition to score far too freely.
Honourable mentions: Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho, Thiago, Jordan Henderson, Trent Alexander-Arnold the defender