Ranking the five most impactful Liverpool players of the Klopp era
1. Alisson Becker
If you read the phrase "most important" at the end of Salah's section and felt a bit lost, I'd implore you to also check out the world "outfield."
Yes, the big Brazilian shot-stopper brought in from Rome is the most important player to all of the successes found under Jürgen Klopp.
It's not anywhere close to a coincidence that the season in which he arrived was the one where Liverpool went from a scrappy underdog with a lethal attack to an absolute juggernaut that was nearly impossible to beat- he was the final piece of the puzzle, and launched Liverpool into the stratosphere of club football.
So many of Liverpool's failures under Klopp have had to do with poor goalkeeping.
The most memorable was Loris Karius' debacle in Kiev against Real Madrid- the final game before the Alisson era- but Adrian's miserable performance against Atletico Madrid cost Liverpool a chance to defend their UCL title, and even Caoimhin Kelleher, who has largely been outstanding as a backup, put in some really poor performances just before Alisson returned from injury this year.
When there have been injuries and deficiencies in Liverpool's defensive personnel, Alisson has gone into superhuman mode to paper over those issues with impeccable positioning, acrobatic shot-stopping, and world-best one-on-one capabilities.
His downfield distribution has also produced some memorable Liverpool goals, mostly to Mohamed Salah including a matchwinner against Manchester City and a match-sealer Manchester United.
Last but most definitely not least, Alisson even went down the pitch himself to score probably the second-most memorable goal of the Klopp era, a winning header against West Brom, tucked away with outrageous class and touch.
The best part is that unlike Salah, van Dijk, and some of the other legends on this list, the 31-year-old keeper has shown incredibly few signs of slowing down- one can only hope that he'll top the list of the most impactful players of a trophy-laden Slot era as well.