How Liverpool's summer exits are doing since leaving Anfield | OneFootball

Highlights

Liverpool have had a good start to the 2023/24 season with Jurgen Klopp's side hoping to regain entry into the Champions League after missing out on qualification to the top European competition last season. The 2022/23 season was extremely disappointing by the lofty standards set by Klopp and his team over recent years.

It was only about 18 months ago that Liverpool were only two games away from completing a historic quadruple after winning the FA Cup and League Cup before falling just short of Premier League and Champions League glory. Since then, there has been a lot of change in the first-team squad at Anfield with many of the mainstays in Klopp's most successful team being moved on in the summer of 2023.

Both the club captain and vice-captain decided it was time to pursue new challenges which raised questions about who would step up to become the leaders in the Liverpool changing room. After seeing the opening couple of months of the season play out, it has become more apparent that these changes might have come at the right time with a couple of the replacements impressing in the early parts of their career on Merseyside.

Domink Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister represent significant change in the engine room and have done an admirable job at the start of their Anfield tenure at replacing a vast amount of experience and ability. We decided to take a look at the players to have departed the club on a permanent basis in the summer to see where they are now.

Jordan Henderson

Where better to start than with the former captain of the club? Henderson called time on his Liverpool career after 12 years at the club as he decided to take up the opportunity to join Saudi Pro League side, Al-Ettifaq. The former Sunderland midfielder was a massive part in the Premier League and Champions League success at the height of the Klopp era so far and will be a big loss for the German manager and the players around him.

Henderson has come under fire for his decision to move to Saudi Arabia, although he has defended his choice to join the side managed by Steven Gerrard by saying, per The Telegraph: “As I keep on saying, it doesn’t change the person that I am. I’m playing football in a different country in Saudi where I want to try to improve the game on the pitch but also things off the pitch as well. That’s all I keep trying to do.”

The England international has registered five assists from nine games for his new club as Al-Ettifaq find themselves in seventh position in the Saudi Pro League table.

James Milner

If losing the captain wasn't enough of a blow to the morale within the squad, losing the vice-captain too would be debilitating for many teams. Klopp did unfortunately lose both of his leaders during the summer window as Milner decided not to extend his eight-year stay with the Reds as he instead opted to join Roberto de Zerbi's exciting project at Brighton.

The 37-year-old had fallen down the pecking order at Anfield, being utilised mainly as a back-up to Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back for the most part of his final campaign with the club. Having won every competition possible at Liverpool apart from the Europa League, he will be looking to right that wrong this season with his new club also involved in the competition after their brilliant 2022/23 season.

Milner started the opening three fixtures of the season as a right full-back, before dropping to the bench and then facing a spell on the sidelines through injury. Liverpool fans won't have seen the last of their former midfield rock as they will meet the Seagulls later this season.

Naby Keita

The Guinea international began life in the Bundesliga similarly to the way his time in England ended, on the treatment table. A tear in his abductor muscle ruled Keita out of the first four league games of the season for his new team, Werder Bremen. He missed many games for Liverpool with 21 different injuries keeping him on the sidelines at Anfield during his five years with the club.

After signing for £48 million from RB Leipzig in 2018, Liverpool fans expected Keita to light up their midfield. This did not pan out however, as he failed to consistently get on the pitch which cause Klopp to lose faith and select other options ahead of him even when the 28-year-old was fit.

Being back to full fitness now, everyone associated with the club will wish Keita the best with Klopp even telling the club website that he hopes for the best for his former player by saying: "I wish him the best of luck because he as well won absolutely everything here at Liverpool, which not a lot of people can say.”

Roberto Firmino

This is the one that hit Liverpool fans the hardest, with the wonderful Brazilian becoming the second member of the famous Liverpool front three - alongside Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane - to leave the club. Only Salah remains at Anfield from one of the best attacking trios the division has ever seen. Firmino decided to see out his contract and move on to a new challenge in Saudi Arabia after seeing the likes of Darwin Núñez and Cody Gakpo come in to limit his future game time.

The 32-year-old now forms part of another devastating forward line for his new club Al-Ahli with Riyad Mahrez and Allan-Saint Maximin being deployed either side of him. Firmino became a fan favourite at Anfield as he reinvented the 'false nine' role while scoring 111 goals in 362 games and he has started life in the Middle East at a similar rate of scoring with three from nine games.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

Oxlade-Chamberlain was a brilliant signing for Klopp after he reinvented himself into a box-to-box midfielder after previously being a blistering winger at Arsenal. Liverpool reached the Champions League final in 2018 and the 30-year-old was pivotal in that run that included a massive win over Manchester City with Oxlade-Chamberlain scoring a memorable long-range effort in the home leg.

Things started to go downhill for the Englishman after suffering a long-term injury in the semi-final of that season's competition against Roma. He never returned with the same speed and intensity in his game, falling down the pecking order over the following years. The former England international was one of several players to exit Anfield upon the expiry of their contract and is now playing in the Turkish Süper Lig with Besiktas.

Fabinho

One of the players to have seen their form drop off significantly in the 2022/23 season, Fabinho was no longer the dominant force of previous years in the middle of the Liverpool midfield. Instead, the Brazilian appeared to have lost a yard of pace and the ability to cover the entire pitch, perhaps due to the enormous number of minutes he had played for the four seasons prior.

Al-Ittihad swooped in with an offer Liverpool couldn't refuse during the summer with a £40 million deal agreed. His departure meant every senior member of the Premier League winning midfield in 2020 had now been moved on and a midfield re-build had been complete. It came as a shock to see the man formerly nicknamed 'The Lighthouse' by his teammates to leave the club, but the time may have been right for all parties to move forward.

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