Football Manager stories: Can Matthijs de Ligt transform Liverpool into domestic titans?

Season three

The start of this campaign marks the end of the weird transfer saga of Rick Karsdorp, who joined the club for £34 million, played four league games and was sold to Valencia for £18.25 million a season later.

But, in a moment that more than makes up for his Karsdorp debacle, Michael Edwards somehow got nearly £40 milion for Mignolet and Lovren, which is another small step in Edwards being handed the keys to the city.

This is also the season that De Ligt continued to establish himself as one of the club’s finest defenders and played 51 times in all competitions, 34 of those coming in the Premier League. His value continued to soar and finally settled at £63 million as the Dutchman was handed new terms 190,000 a week that expired in 2024.

Interestingly, this was also the time when Ben Woodburn established himself and started 23 games in all comps  scoring nine goals and assisting 11.

On the competitions front, Liverpool finished third in the league – six points behind winners Manchester United. They won the FA Cup again, won the European Super Cup, got beat in the final of the League Cup by West Ham and were knocked out of the Champions League last 16 by Borussia Dortmund.

Weirdly Steven N’Zonzi experienced a late campaign revival and ended up named in the team of the year at centre back for Manchester City. Guess we never appreciated him enough at Stoke!