If you were choosing one word to sum up Liverpool going into the new Premier League season, it would be ‘undercooked’.
With six permanent departures from Anfield this summer, Jurgen Klopp’s side have lost a staggering 1,776 worth of Premier League appearances.
Five of those exits were midfielders, with just two signings through the door to replace them and the club labelled ‘embarrassing’ by legend Jamie Carragher for a drawn-out saga to sign a replacement No 6 in Romeo Lavia, from Championship club Southampton.
And Virgil Van Dijk, the new captain after long-standing Jordan Henderson controversially jetted off to Saudi Arabia, says he understands Liverpool fans’ anxieties going into the new season, with defensive frailties shown in pre-season and ‘big characters’ no longer at the club.