A handful of Jurgen Klopp’s signings have previously made an impact by scoring against Liverpool prior to making the move to Anfield, with Darwin Nunez the latest example. The Uruguayan scored home and away against the Reds in the Champions League quarter-finals last season ahead of his initial £64m switch to Merseyside this summer.
Sadio Mane, Gini Wijnaldum, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Takumi Minamino all managed the same feat to attract the German’s attention, with the Senegalese even managing to score four times for Southampton against Liverpool, including a match-winning brace, during the 2015/16 season. The Dutchman was also on the scoresheet for Newcastle United in 2-0 win over the Reds at St. James’ Park the same campaign, ahead of them both joining the club in Klopp ’s first summer in charge.
Oxlade-Chamberlain was on the scoresheet for Arsenal in Liverpool’s 4-3 opening day victory over the Gunners in August 2016, prior to moving to Anfield 12 months later. Meanwhile, Takumi Minamino memorably netted against the Reds when they came out on top in a seven-goal thriller with Red Bull Salzburg in the Champions League in October 2019 a couple of months before his own switch to England.
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But while the quintet all made their presence in competitive action to catch Klopp’s eye, another member of the current Liverpool squad also followed such a trend when scoring against the Reds in a friendly six years ago.
Coming in the German’s first pre-season in the Anfield dugout, both Mane and Wijnaldum started when Liverpool took on AS Roma at the Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals, in St. Louis, Missouri in what was the early hours of August 2 back in the UK. The Reds’ side also included the likes of 39-year-old goalkeeper Alex Manninger, making his first appearance for the club, a 17-year-old Trent Alexander-Arnold, who was yet to make his senior debut, Lazar Markovic and Sheyi Ojo.
Meanwhile, having only joined the Serie A outfit the month before, Alisson actually started in goal for Roma that night, and would thrice deny Daniel Sturridge during the first half, but it was fellow future Liverpool star Mohamed Salah that would grab the headlines against his would-be employers, a year before his own move to Anfield.
Former Man City striker Edin Dzeko’s drilled finish gave the Italians’ the lead just before the half-hour mark as he caught out Manninger from the edge of the box, only for Ojo, who had enjoyed an impressive breakthrough campaign the year before, to equalise on the stroke of half-time as he headed home Dejan Lovren’s knockdown from a James Milner corner.
However, while he would not know it at the time, the young winger had suffered a fracture in his back which would rule him out until November. Replaced at half-time by Markovic as Klopp made 10 changes, the setback would ultimately derail Ojo’s Anfield career.
Having recorded one goal and three assists from 11 appearances in 2015/16, he would feature just twice more for the Reds in the FA Cup following his return from injury, before spending the next five years on loan at Fulham, Reims, Rangers, Cardiff City and Millwall ahead of a permanent switch to the South Wales outfit at the end of his contract.
Liverpool’s performance following the break was horribly disjointed, with Roma's winner just past the hour mark a result of a comedy of errors. Alessandro Florenzi was allowed to cross and some shoddy marking gifted Dzeko a free header.
Substitute Simon Mignolet blocked his effort but neither the keeper nor Andre Wisdom reacted quickly enough to stop Salah from converting the rebound from close-range against his future team-mates. Initially disallowed by the referee, the Egyptian’s strike was allowed to stand as Roma clinched a 2-1 win.
While the scoreline wouldn’t be troubled further, there was still drama in the remaining third as Alisson tipped over a Danny Ings’ header from Cameron Brannagan’s free-kick, while Alberto Moreno was forced off injured with a dead leg.
Meanwhile, Lucas Leiva, who missed the game through injury and was expected to leave for Galatasaray at the time, still managed to get himself ‘sent off’ when he reacted furiously to one incident and flung a bottle of water onto the pitch and was banished from the touchline as a result.
Given his side’s below-par performance for the majority, Klopp was understandably unimpressed when speaking after the final whistle.
"It was difficult to play for my team, after the intensity of the tour,” he said after the game. “It wasn't our best game but that can happen when you aren't compact like in the first half.
"There were big spaces between the positions. Nearly every attacking situation was a chance. It made no sense. We had a lot of good chances too. It could have been 6-5 at half-time. It was exciting for the supporters but not what I wanted.
"I can accept it because I know why. We've had 13 days in the USA and the hardest circumstances tonight. A lot of intensive sessions and then playing in that heat tonight.
“We've had a lot of games in the last few weeks and our opponent has had no games for two weeks so it was hard. Of course we have to do better. It was easy to see what was wrong so it's easy to change it."
Meanwhile, he told LFC TV: “First half we played quite well and created chances but overall the gaps between the players were too big, I could have played there! I didn’t like body language at 1-0, there was not enough organisation and discipline.
“When you are tired you need to be compact, we should not allow them to play through us so easily. We have done a lot while we’ve been out here, in difficult circumstances, so maybe concentration wasn’t at top level. Hopefully this will be the last game like this for 500 years!”
When you consider Liverpool would qualify for the Champions League for only the second time since 2009 in the 2016/17 campaign, before going on to win every major honour on offer to them in the years that have followed, it’s safe to say that the Reds have not had too many repeat performances since that 2016 loss to Roma!
They’d get their revenge on the Italians too, when it mattered most, defeating them 7-6 on aggregate in the Champions League semi-finals to set up a final clash with Real Madrid in Kiev in 2018.
Meanwhile, while that friendly loss to Roma in 2016 is hardly one for the Liverpool annals, and is one that frustrated Klopp, it at least gave the Reds’ a first-hand opportunity to scout the source of such frustration, before later luring the pair to Anfield.
Salah would join Liverpool in a deal worth £43m in the summer of 2017, while Alisson would follow 12 months later as his £65m transfer briefly made him the most expensive goalkeeper in the world. Since then, both have established themselves as two of Klopp's greatest signings, going on to help the Reds win the Premier League, Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup, FA Cup, League Cup, European Super Cup and Community Shield.
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