With Liverpool languishing in mid-table in the Premier League, the Reds are in need of major surgery in the summer whatever the outcome of their troubled campaign
The need for Liverpool to rebuild is of course obvious, but in order to do that they are going to have to move some players on.
As results and performances have nosedived in recent weeks, Jurgen Klopp has become more and more willing to discuss the idea that wholesale changes are needed in his squad, even if many would have liked to see them already.
Klopp has three years remaining on his deal after this season, and despite recent troubles there is little to no doubt he will see them through, as it stands.
Plenty of players won’t come along for the ride though, and we could well see a raft of Liverpool exits come the end of the season.
Here are 10 players who could be on the way out.
Caoimhin Kelleher
One of the first things to consider when selling players is of course just how much money you’ll get for them, and Irish goalkeeper Kelleher is one of very few lucrative saleable assets at the Reds right now.
The 24-year-old has served his apprenticeship at Liverpool and grown into a superb stopper, and in an ideal world the Reds wouldn’t want to lose him.
But the club also won’t stand in his way in of his pursuit of first-team football and the chance to become a team’s No.1, something he undoubtedly deserves after his cup heroics at Anfield.
Adrian
The goalkeeping department will likely need a shake up in the summer, with the veteran Adrian likely to depart after four seasons with the Reds.
Now No.3 choice after the emergence of Kelleher, the ex-West Ham man’s displays at the beginning of the title-winning 2019-20 season when he deputised for the injured Alisson should not be forgotten, and he managed 18 of his 26 Reds appearances for the club in that campaign.
Joel Matip
Now 31 and into his seventh season with the Reds, the previously unflappable Matip looks another player weighed down by the issues facing the club.
The centre-back had a nightmare on his return to the side at Wolves, and there are growing suggestions that he could leave the club in the summer with just one year left on his current deal.
He would leave as a player highly-regarded by Liverpool fans, and one of the club’s best ever free transfer additions.
Nat Phillips
On last week’s transfer deadline day Nat Phillips would yet again have been waiting with his bags packed, only to be told that he is not allowed to leave Liverpool.
It has become a running theme for the centre-back, who saw an injury to Ibrahima Konate ruin his chances of an exit having attracted interest from Benfica and Galatasaray earlier in the window.
Several Premier League clubs have also looked at Phillips, who will turn 26 next month, and who surely deserves the chance to go and forge his own career as a starter.
Fabinho
Sometimes you just have to get ruthless when a rebuild is needed, and Fabinho’s form this season suggests there may well be no saving the Brazilian.
He’s been a superb player for Klopp’s team, and merits being included in the discussion when it comes to the best ever Liverpool XI due to his roles in the Champions League and Premier League victories, but for whatever reason it just hasn’t worked out for him this season.
That isn’t all his fault of course, with switches in shape and endless changes in personnel making his life more difficult that most of the rest of his team-mates due to his position on the pitch, but having lost his place to teenager Stefan Bajcetic you do wonder where his next start could come from.
Klopp recently admitted Fabinho wasn’t happy with the situation, and a fresh start may be needed.
Naby Keita
It says it all about the paradoxical nature of Naby Keita’s Liverpool career that the most concrete news about his potential exit has come at a time when he is back in the team.
Reports from Germany, where he used to play for RB Leipzig, have stated that Keita is now likely to leave the Reds on a free transfer when his contract expires at the end of the campaign, with a move back to the Bundesliga perhaps the most likely.
He would leave as a player who divided opinions, and then some.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Another whose contract will expire in the summer, it seems that Oxlade-Chamberlain is destined for the Liverpool exit door and will need to find a new club.
Perhaps unfairly labelled as an injury prone player, fans will always wonder what might have been for the Englishman if he hadn’t sustained the devastating knee injury in the Champions League semi-final against Roma in 2018.
He was in the team then and playing well, and although he played a key role in the title win in 2019-20 things have never really been the same since.
James Milner
The third of the Liverpool midfielders whose deal expires at the end of the season – the main factor the Reds need new faces in the position, regardless of who they are – Milner might well end up staying, but is no word on that at the moment.
There isn’t likely to be either, with a decision expected on the veteran at the end of the campaign.
It says a lot about Liverpool’s current predicament that plenty want him in the team to provide some steel.
Roberto Firmino
Yet another Liverpool player who’ll be out of contract come the end of the season, the mood music is still louder around Firmino staying, although by no means definitive.
You could argue that the injury issues suffered by Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota this season would make Klopp more determined than ever to keep Firmino, but then he’s been sidelined himself now since before the World Cup break.
A short-term deal could make a stay possible, but as it stands he’ll be gone.
Arthur Melo
What do you mean you’d forgotten he existed?
Arthur was added as an emergency midfielder before the closure of the summer window, but so far he hasn’t proven to be the answer to anything bar a pub quiz question.
He’s still injured, and hasn’t been named in the Champions League squad for the knockout stages, so you can safely assume that he won’t be joining on a permanent deal.
