Liverpool have £200m of forward talent – but what’s their best front three?
With six high-calibre options now all fit and showing signs of form, Jurgen Klopp must decide which stars are going to be left on the bench
Luis Diaz has been missed by Liverpool, but his comeback was hardly the game to show it. Had Alisson's early-season challenger for their player-of-the-year title not missed six months of action, their season might have taken a completely different turn. Three of their forwards had already scored five goals at Elland Road when he left, though. Darwin Nunez, another substitute, made it six shortly after his debut.
In a sea of goals, Diaz's comeback was forgotten. Liverpool had used him frequently, but not in a 6-1 thrashing against Leeds. He may have observed the odd psychology of a team that can score in bursts and hatfuls or not at all, that can inflict thrashings or take beatings, that can occasionally be magnificent but yet be far too inconsistent. The presence of Diaz may have inspired Liverpool's other attackers if Jurgen Klopp is to be believed to be the world's greatest motivator.
Cody Gakpo scored once, Mohamed Salah scored twice, and Diogo Jota scored twice. Jota, who hadn't scored in almost a year while filling in for Diaz, was suddenly effective once more. Nunez has also utilized left turns in
Diaz’s extended absence and found the net. Factor in Roberto Firmino, albeit only for his final few weeks as a Liverpool player, and Klopp has not had six forward options of such calibre at any stage in his reign.
It highlighted the way the rebuild has begun at the front, the £170 million committed to Diaz, Nunez and Gakpo standing out still more when nothing was invested in the midfield in the same period, when Liverpool now cannot afford Jude Bellingham. Klopp felt Jordan Henderson and Curtis Jones, who each left Elland Road with an assist, set the tone with their pressing in Leeds. But if he has too many compelling choices in the front three, he still has too few in the middle three.
What is Klopp's best front three? is a question that hasn't been relevant for much of Klopp's tenure. Diaz has the right to believe that he has the status of a starter and star when he was last available when he is sharp enough to play more. Nunez is the most expensive of them all, barring the diminutive £85 million man and the human wrecking ball. Gakpo, a left winger for PSV Eindhoven, is hardly a carbon copy of Firmino, but it is noteworthy that he is emerging as the Brazilian's replacement. A Klopp false nine, Gakpo possessed the Firmino-like selflessness to pass for Salah's second goal. The fact that Jota scored may not have been the most telling factor. after 32 games without a goal: it was that he began the game.
He has kept Klopp's confidence despite a tough patch. He lost control of the ball 15 times in the opening half-hour, scored two goals and provided an assist, but his off-the-ball efforts may have kept him in the starting lineup. He had started twice against Manchester City and Arsenal during a season marred by injuries, as well as once each against Real Madrid, Ajax, and Chelsea. Klopp typically calls Jota in for important events. Although the bigger, faster Nunez is a wild card, his physicality is more visible. Jota and Gakpo are more adept at selecting whom to press and where to press them.
“We could have had a completely different front three but the front three played tonight because of the way we defended,” Klopp rationalised. “They can all play football but we need to understand it starts there.”
Salah, Gakpo and Jota all scored against Leeds
(Getty Images)
He attributed three goals to pressing, including the second, set up by Jota for Salah. The fourth stemmed from Jota’s tackle on the edge of his own box. “Counter-pressing wise, the best game for a long time,” Klopp said. Pressing, in one of his more famous comments, was the best playmaker. Trent Alexander-Arnold, who had two assists of his own, has a claim to that title. Any hopes Bellingham would be that playmaker have disappeared; but then the classic Klopp midfields never needed one. Nor have they had many goals: it was typical that as they scored six, just as when they got seven against Manchester United, they all came from forwards.
Chemistry was the key to the front three's success, which was certain. The formula does not alter as the faces do. In the depths of despair and the bowels of the Diego Maradona Stadium, Klopp made one of the season's most dramatic and misleading statements when he claimed that Liverpool needed to "reinvent ourselves." He actually meant that they needed to repeat and replace. The moments when they were most intense this season were their high points. The majority have came after switching back to the 4-3-3 formation, even though Alexander-Arnold was given a role similar to that of a midfielder. A night when Gakpo appeared to be Firmino's replacement and Jota was the current team's closest thing to Sadio Mane demonstrated the power of the old blueprint, but invited questions where the different talents of Diaz and Nunez fit into it.
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