Jurgen Klopp‘s Liverpool is among the greatest-ever club sides in football history, but many of his standouts are not at the World Cup in Qatar.
Just over two years on from the Reds’ triumph in the Premier League in 2019/20, only nine players from that title-winning squad are part of the World Cup.
It is a remarkable statistic that shows many things, with players missing out due to injury or a failure to qualify, and the diversity of Klopp’s squad has ensured some simply had no opportunity.
Five of those nine players are still with the club, those being Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho and Jordan Henderson.
Dejan Lovren, Neco Williams, Takumi Minamino and Xherdan Shaqiri have since left but are also in Qatar with their national teams.
The only other Liverpool player to make an appearance in any competition in 2019/20 – but not the Premier League – who is at the World Cup is Canada forward Liam Millar, who left for Basel in 2021.
That means 20 of the 29 players to feature in at least one matchday squad on the way to the title are not at the tournament.
Among those are Gini Wijnaldum and Sadio Mane, who would have been involved were it not for injury, along with Roberto Firmino, Divock Origi, Harvey Elliott and Joe Gomez, who did not receive a call-up.
Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson, Naby Keita and Caoimhin Kelleher are not present due to their countries failing to qualify.
James Milner and Joel Matip are both retired from international duty, while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Adam Lallana, Adrian, Curtis Jones, Nat Phillips, Andy Lonergan, Rhian Brewster and Ki-Jana Hoever were not in contention.
That still beats the current squad, of course, with just seven players from Klopp’s ranks heading to Qatar this winter.
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