Jurgen Klopp's ambitions at the start of the 2023/24 season extended beyond a renewed title tilt.
"We need to create a new way to play football," Liverpool's manager declared after a summer of upheaval. Klopp brought in four new faces to replace six experienced first-team players; the departing half-dozen had made 1,680 Liverpool appearances between them.
With the off-season's turnover concentrated in midfield, Liverpool are all but guaranteed to play a different style.
Before the power of hindsight can be applied, here's how Liverpool have handled a tumultuous summer.
2023/24 Liverpool arrivals
Alexis Mac Allister - A
Many aspects of Liverpool's acquisition of Alexis Mac Allister make for impressive reading. A release clause inserted into the World Cup's contract avoided any potential of a saga but Liverpool were hardly the only interested Premier League club.
Nevertheless, the club's new sporting director Jorg Schmadtke acted fast to snag the signature of a player that can operate in multiple positions for a pitiful initial fee of £35m. For comparison, Mac Allister's Brighton teammate Moises Caicedo was more than three times the price.
Dominik Szoboszlai - A
Klopp was quick to lavish praise on his £60m recruit from RB Leipzig - the result of another release clause. "He is a machine," the German coach gushed four games into the season. "He has been absolutely impressive, tactically smart and ready for the dirty part of the game. Not the fancy stuff, not shooting, passing and running forward - closing down opponents."
Arriving in a new country to play a new role in a new system, Szoboszlai has rapidly banished any notion that he would need time to settle in. Whether the 22-year-old can maintain his fast start remains to be seen, but all the signs are positive.
Wataru Endo - B-
Wataru Endo may have caught Klopp's eye during a Liverpool friendly against Stuttgart in 2020 but a £16m move for the 30-year-old this summer was a significant surprise.
In the absence of Fabinho and Jordan Henderson, Klopp needed a specialist defensive midfielder to add some ballast to the centre - as he told Endo upon his arrival: "We really need you. Your heart and your legs and your football brain, we need it. We have a really good team. Ready to work, but very offensive."
Endo's limited ability in possession - particularly a worryingly lax record of ball retention - offers some caveats to this short-term fix, but Japan's captain will certainly plug a few gaps.
Ryan Gravenberch - B
Despite a disappointing season getting splinters on Bayern Munich's bench, Ryan Gravenberch's Anfield arrival offers plenty of reasons for optimism.
The rangy midfielder brings drive and dexterity in possession and racked up more than a century of appearances for Ajax while he was still a teenager. The only downside to the deal for the 21-year-old is the fee; despite starting just three Bundesliga games, Bayern squeezed Liverpool for more than twice the initial fee they paid to Ajax 12 months earlier.
2023/24 Liverpool departures
James Milner - B
James Milner's move to Brighton at the end of his Liverpool contract suited all parties involved. The 37-year-old remains in the Premier League with the promise of European football while bringing his bags of experience to the south coast. Liverpool, meanwhile, shed his £140,000-per-week salary.
After eight years, 332 appearances and seven trophies, the Reds got plenty out of a player who joined on a free transfer from Manchester City.
Naby Keita - C
The end of Naby Keita's injury-ravaged half-decade at Liverpool could not come soon enough. Signed for a club-record £52.3m in 2017 - before joining the Reds from RB Leipzig one year later - Keita skulked out of the back door of the treatment room at the end of his contract.
No club was willing to pay a transfer fee last summer and Werder Bremen gambled on Keita's abhorrent injury record this year. Unsurprisingly, he spent the first month at his new club in the medical department.
Roberto Firmino - C+
Since its foundation in the 19th century, only 19 players in the history of Liverpool Football Club have ever scored a century of goals. Losing one of them for free is always going to sting but Roberto Firmino's "wonderful story" with Liverpool had come to an end.
None of Darwin Nunez, Cody Gakpo nor Diogo Jota may be able to fill the centre-forward role with quite the same complete blend of touch and tenacity as a prime Firmino, but Liverpool's frontline is well stocked in the Brazilian's absence.
Jordan Henderson - A
While weakly arguing that he moved to Saudi Arabia for motives outside of money, Jordan Henderson revealed that no one from Liverpool asked him to stay when Al Ettifaq - led by former Reds captain Steven Gerrard - came calling.
That pointed inaction underscored how good the deal looked from Liverpool's perspective. The Reds did well to jettison an ageing midfielder who was sliding down the pecking order while collecting £12m.
Fabinho - A+
Taken in isolation, a £40m fee for Fabinho after comfortably the worst season of his Liverpool career is an astonishing piece of opportunism from the Reds.
Just a few weeks earlier, the Brazilian had been trying to persuade Firmino to stay at Anfield only to follow his compatriot to the Saudi Pro League. Endo may not be the most convincing replacement for Fabinho but the deal from Al Ittihad was too good - for everyone - to turn down.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain - D
Another injury-prone midfielder that failed to command a transfer fee, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain may as well have left last January - that was the month in which he earned his final start for Liverpool.
Even without the hurdle of price tag, it took until mid-August for Oxlade-Chamberlain to find a new club.
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This article was originally published on 90min as Liverpool's summer transfer window - graded.
