Klopp boasts Liverpool attack is scary

It could be Mohamed Salah, Darwin Núñez and Luis Díaz. Alternatively, Jürgen Klopp may opt for Salah, Núñez and Diogo Jota. Or, with a tweak of shape, how about Salah, Roberto Firmino, Díaz and Jota?

Factor in talented youngsters such as Fábio Carvalho and Harvey Elliott and the attacking possibilities for Liverpool suddenly feel endless.

“We had two, three or four years where it was always clear before the pre-season that we would start up front with Sadio [Mané], Bobby [Firmino] and Mo [Salah],” Klopp, the Liverpool manager, said. “Now the door is open for pretty much everybody. That is what we have to use.”

Between the summers of 2017 and 2021, Klopp scribbled down the names of Mané, Firmino and Salah in his starting line-up on 132 occasions and not once did he regret that choice — he was rewarded with a deluge of goals as Liverpool scaled the heights at home and in Europe.

Last season the trio began to break up, starting together on only five occasions, and now, with Mané having departed to Bayern Munich, the band will not be getting back together. It is time for new tunes to be heard.

If there was a familiarity with Liverpool’s forward line — and 4-3-3 formation — in the past, then it did not make it any easier for rivals to stop them. Mané, Firmino and Salah scored 338 goals between them and produced 137 assists over that five-year period.

Mané’s output is sure to be missed, as is his pressing ability, but Klopp is hoping that with new faces come new opportunities.

Salah remains the one certain starter, while Díaz, a £37 million arrival from Porto in January, continues to excite — although he needs to start displaying a more ruthless edge in front of goal given the positions into which the Colombian manoeuvres himself.

How quickly Núñez — recruited in a £64 million deal with Benfica, which could rise to £85 million and make him Liverpool’s record signing — settles in remains to be seen.

His 30-minute run-out in the 4-0 friendly defeat by Manchester United on Tuesday was characterised by a glaring miss after Salah had struck the post.

The Uruguay forward had taken part in only three training sessions, one of which had been cut short due to blisters, but he still should have scored.

Klopp is hopeful that Núñez can hit the ground running, as Díaz did in January, but if he takes a little longer to find his feet then there is no concern.

Second-guessing how Liverpool will line up in attack is going to be problematic for opponents and something the manager is clearly hoping to turn to their advantage.

 “That will make us completely difficult to analyse before the game,” said Klopp, whose squad have travelled to Singapore before Friday’s game with Crystal Palace. “It would be a massive difference whether it is him or him playing the position in the game. That is now really different. That is what I like about it. It will be really interesting.

 “That is really cool. That is what we have to use. Not to put boys under pressure and tell them, ‘You have to do this.’ We have enough games that they all will play, but it is about how can we really bring ourselves, all of us, in the situation that we make the extra yard [step]?

“Because that would bring an amount of joy that is pretty much not imaginable and that is what I am really looking forward to.”