The amount of column inches written about Liverpool’s midfield in recent times could probably wallpaper the Taj Mahal a thousand times over.
Arguably least outstanding area of the Reds’ squad during the golden era of success enjoyed under Jurgen Klopp over the last five years or so, much of the summer 2022 close-season was taken up with debate over how - and even if - it could or should be strengthened, with the German coach initially adamant he was satisfied with his options before changing tack as the transfer window drew to a close, leading to the deadline-day loan signing of the so-far lesser-spotted Brazilian, Arthur Melo.
Succession planning has largely been a major strength and carried out effectively at Anfield of late but refreshing Liverpool’s midfield was never going to be as easy as some seem to think given the unique demands Klopp requires from those in the middle of the park and the exalted level his team have been performing at on a regular basis. And it has been made more difficult by the contentious departure the summer before last of a man whose versatility and tactical nous papered over many of the gaps within that area of the squad and who has so far proved impossible to adequately replace.
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Georginio Wijnaldum arrived on Merseyside in Klopp’s first summer as Reds boss back in 2016 ostensibly as a playmaker in a £25m deal from Newcastle United but his ability to shape-shift depending on what his coach required dates back to his formative years back in Holland, where positional flexibility is as much a part of the furniture as tulips, pancakes and windmills. Starting out with Sparta in his home city of Rotterdam, young ‘Gini’ - largely brought up by his grandmother after his Surinam-born parents separated when he was six - began as a centre half before becoming a right-back at under 11/12 level and then eventually a midfielder.
He moved to Rotterdam’s biggest club, Feyenoord, in 2007 and soon afterwards became their youngest ever first-team player, making his debut against Groningen at the age of only 16 years and 148 days. His dribbling ability saw him moved out to the right wing in his third season at the De Kuip by new manager Gertjan Verbeek, a switch the affable youngster went along with but he was never in any doubt over where he felt his best position was.
“I performed well there so they didn’t want to move me out, but in my mind, I always believed I was better in midfield”, he later admitted. “I was just happy to be playing, though, because I was young. When you’re still developing, getting games is so important. I learnt a lot playing on the wing and now I understand what the guys in those positions want from me. But when I got older, I knew I wanted to be a midfielder. I’ve had to have discussions with my agent, managers, directors, chief executives to explain that I am a midfielder, especially at Feyenoord.”
His final year with Feyenoord also saw feature in the number 10 role before he moved to PSV Eindhoven for €5m in June 2011 where his ability to provide goals and assists from midfield rose to a new level, scoring 56 times in 154 appearances during four seasons with the ‘Rood-witten’, and captaining them to a first Eredivisie league title in eight years in 2014/15. It won him a move to the Premier League that summer where Newcastle United paid £14.5m - making him the most expensive signing of Mike Ashley’s ownership - and, although his 11 goals in 40 matches were not enough to save the Toon from relegation, his performances drew the attention of a number of clubs including Liverpool.
Two months after Jurgen Klopp took over from Brendan Rodgers in October 2015, Wijnaldum played a major role in the German’s first away defeat as Reds boss, forcing Martin Skrtel into the 69th minute own goal which broke the deadlock at St James Park and then scoring the clinching second goal himself in stoppage time with the kind of calm finish at the end of a counter-attack Liverpool supporters would become used to from him to bring Steve McLaren’s struggling side only their third league win of the campaign. By the time of the Anfield return the following April, Rafa Benitez had replaced McLaren and Wijnaldum - left out of the starting line-up - came off the bench at half time with visitors two goals down and helped his side to a battling if ultimately futile point in their bid for survival.
A player of Wijnaldum’s calibre, already a well-established Dutch international having made his bow for the Oranje five years earlier, was never likely to be happy with second-tier football and in late July 2016, he became Klopp’s seventh summer signing following the acquisitions of Sadio Mane, Joel Matip, Ragnar Klavan, Marko Grujic, Loris Karius and Alex Manninger after the Reds agreed a £25m fee.
“I’m really excited because Liverpool is a big club with a great history and it’s always a dream to play for as big a club as Liverpool”, he told the official LFC website. “Jurgen Klopp seems a great man - from the outside - because I don’t know how he works yet and I have to work with him. But I always love to watch him, his passion as a trainer, I like how he enjoys the game. He gives something back to the group with his passion so I look forward to working with him.”
Klopp was equally delighted at securing the seventh and final signing of his £60m+ summer spending spree as he looked to build on a largely encouraging first nine months in charge which had seen the Reds reach but then lose two cup finals while finishing a disappointing eight in the Premier League.
“I think he can be a great player for us”, the German predicted. “He has already shown some really good moments in his career but the most exciting and important thing for me and my staff is that there is still so much extra to come from him. When I talked to him I could tell that he knows we have to work together to get this level out of him to all be successful for the team. He has played a lot for his country already, been captain at a young age in Holland and also been involved in a tough Premier League season, so this experience gives him a good foundation for the challenge here, which everybody knows is huge. He can play a few positions for us and players that come through the Dutch system usually have a good tactical understanding and flexibility. That’s really important. I can’t wait to get him on the training pitch and for the fans to see him play in a Liverpool shirt.”
The Dutchman was one of four debutants on the opening day season as Liverpool travelled to Arsenal - operating on the left side of a midfield three along with skipper Jordan Henderson and Adam Lallana - and played his part in an eventful 4-3 victory, producing a smart assist for Lallana to put the Reds in front shortly after half time as four goals in an 18-minute blitz either side of the interval highlighted the raw potential of Klopp’s rebuilt side before the hosts pulled two back to set up a grandstand finish.
That opening match ended up being something of a microcosm of Liverpool’s rollercoaster season, with a 2-0 defeat at newly-promoted Burnley the following weekend - despite Klopp’s men having 81 percent possession over the 90 minutes and registering 25 shots on goal as opposed to the host’s two - illustrating how much work still lay ahead. The consistency in performances and results the manager and his staff were seeking did initially transpire, the Reds not being beaten again until early December at Bournemouth, having the previous month gone top of the Premier League for the first time since May 2014 with a 6-1 Anfield victory over Watford crowned by Wijnaldum scoring his first goal for his new club.
The Dutchman’s second came on New Year’s Eve, a thumping header which proved the difference as Pep Guardiola brought Manchester City to Anfield for the first time and opened up a four-point lead over the Etihad club for the second-placed Reds who were six behind leaders Chelsea, sending exuberant Kopites home with dreams of a possible title charge in the new year. Those ambitions were swiftly put into perspective as the talismanic Mane’s departure on African Nations Cup duty prompted a slump which saw only one league win in the next two months to put even Champions League qualification in jeopardy.
Wijnaldum still showed his big-match temperament during that difficult period by poaching an equaliser against Chelsea that at least stemmed the bleeding after three successive home defeats to Swansea City, Southampton (in the League Cup semi-final) and second-tier Wolves (in the FA Cup fourth round) and his late clincher in a 3-1 Anfield triumph over Arsenal at the start of March - running half the length of the field to sweep home in front of the Kop after a classic counter-attack - signalled an improvement in fortunes, with only one more defeat before the end of the campaign.
On the final day, Liverpool knew victory at home over already-relegated Middlesbrough would secure fourth place and the return to the Champions League which had been the season’s main objective before it began but the Reds didn’t start well, receiving a huge slice of fortune early on when Dejan Lovren appeared to bring down striker Patrick Bamford when clear through but referee Martin Atkinson waved play on when a penalty and red card could have put an entirely different complexion on proceedings, and it was Wijnaldum who settled Anfield’s jangling nerves just before half time, striding purposefully onto Roberto Firmino’s pass and smashing the ball high into the net.
Second half efforts from Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana secured an ultimately comfortable 3-0 victory and a successful first full campaign in charge for Klopp and debut season for Wijnaldum, who had featured in all but two of the Reds league matches.
“We knew that we had to win to qualify for the Champions League, so we saw it as a final”, he later admitted. “It was tense and you could also see, I think, that because we didn’t score that early the fans were a little bit nervous. I think even we as players were a little bit nervous because you know that you’re playing at home, you know that you have to win. I don’t know if we created really big chances to score a goal so that also gave the team a little bit of a thing to be nervous about, but when we scored the goal it looked like things just fell off our shoulders and we didn’t have the heavy weight anymore. I think that season we had already showed that we can handle big games. Against the top six we didn’t lose a game that season so we already showed it but at that time we were not that consistent with everything so that was a little bit difficult, but we knew that it would help us if we qualified for the Champions League, that we would develop more because you play against the best teams in Europe.”
That proved to be very much the case as, after successfully negotiating the Champions League play-off against German side Hoffenheim and bolstered by the remarkable scoring feats of £36m Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah who arrived during the summer from AS Roma, Liverpool produced a season which fully demonstrated the upward trajectory they were on under Klopp. A chaotic 3-3 draw at Watford on the opening day provoked more interminable soul-searching over the defensive deficiencies which had threatened to stymie progress the previous campaign and led to that summer's attempted but embarrassingly-aborted move for Southampton’s totemic Dutch centre-half, Virgil van Dijk, Wijnaldum again displaying his tactical manoeuvrability by playing on the left side of a back three in the December 2017 5-1 away victory at Brighton & Hove Albion.
The eventual £75m arrival of his international team-mate Van Dijk a few weeks later finally gave Klopp the defensive leader he was looking for and the Reds roared all the way into the Champions League final, Wijnaldum grabbing only his second goal of the campaign and his first away from Anfield since joining the club with what proved to be a crucial header in the second leg of the semi-final in Rome’s Stadio Olimpico. The fates conspired against Klopp’s men in the Kyiv final, Salah’s extraordinary 44-goal debut campaign being brought to a premature conclusion by Sergio Ramos and Loris Karius’s goalkeeping horror show helping Real Madrid win 3-1 but the belief Liverpool - despite such a heartbreaking conclusion to an exhilarating season - were on the cusp of something special was inescapable.
With the defensive spine further bolstered with the summer signings of Brazilians Alisson Becker and Fabinho, seven straight victories at the start of 2018/19 - Wijnaldum grabbing his first league goal away from Anfield with a header in a 2-1 victory at Tottenham - set the tone and the Reds reached the turn of the year unbeaten in the Premier League and leading it by seven points from the previous season’s 100-point champions, Manchester City. Defeat days later at the Etihad - the only one in the league all campaign - kept Guardiola’s men in the hunt and the Reds would suffer a relatively sticky late winter spell with draws against Leicester, West Ham, Manchester United and Everton allowing City to regain a slender, one-point initiative in the title race.
The evolution of Klopp’s side from the ‘heavy-metal’ approach of the early years to a more composed outfit, able to control games better while still unleashing devastating attacking bursts, required real tactical intelligence and discipline throughout the side but particularly in midfield with Wijnaldum often doing a lot of the unsung, ‘donkey’ work which enabled others to shine. He was still chipping in with the occasional goal, a sublime lob against Bournemouth in February 2019 highlighting the delicate touch he possessed, and his adaptation from goalscorer and creator to midfield link man was hugely valued within the dressing room - where, along with compatriot Van Dijk, vice-captain James Milner and skipper Jordan Henderson, he was part of the squad’s leadership committee - if not always outside it.
“A lot of people see me differently, a lot didn’t think I could play the way I am”, the Dutch midfielder - rapidly becoming Klopp’s ‘factotum’ who was able to adapt to almost any tactical request - said. “They thought I was just an attack-minded player, the dribbler or the goalscorer without the discipline to defend and check on the movements of my team-mates. I think I’ve surprised many people because I’m showing I can still make the runs and get goals, but I’m regaining balls, keeping the rhythm in the passing, covering for those around me and getting assists - they’re seeing the complete version of me.”
“Gini can switch from one mindset to the other and that is pretty good for us”, Klopp admitted and it proved invaluable as one of the most outstanding seasons in Liverpool’s long, decorated history reached a tumultuous conclusion. The Reds and Manchester City traded blow for blow in the highest-quality title race ever seen with Liverpool - just one point behind - praying for one slip-up to put them back in control of their own destiny which, as every week slipped by with both sides grinding out victory after victory, they gradually began to realise might never come.
Another run to the Champions League semi-finals had gone almost unnoticed such was the fixation with ending the now near three decade-long wait for the holy grail of a 19th league title but by the start of May, with only two league matches left and City still a point ahead, the prospect of a sixth European Cup suddenly loomed into view. Without the injured Firmino for the first leg of the semi-final against Barcelona in the Camp Nou cauldron, Wijnaldum - who had sometimes played as a second striker at Newcastle as well as attacking midfielder - was pressed into service by Klopp as the Brazilian’s replacement in the middle of the front three.
The Dutchman didn’t let anyone down as Klopp’s men performed admirably but missed chances proved costly as they somehow found themselves on the wrong end of a cruel 3-0 scoreline to leave them on the brink of elimination, picking themselves up off the floor three days later to win their penultimate league fixture at Newcastle to put the pressure back on City but having to watch on in anguish as Vincent Kompany’s rocket shot two days later secured victory for Guardiola’s side over Leicester in what looked to be their hardest game left to ensure a win for them at Brighton on the final day would see them retain their domestic crown.
The following evening Liverpool’s incredible campaign seemed set to come to a heartbreaking end with the slim chances of overturning Barcelona’s three-goal first-leg advantage further harmed with Salah having joined Firmino and Naby Keita on the injured list for the Anfield return after picking up a head injury in the win at Newcastle. Wijnaldum’s reward for having played out of position in the Camp Nou was to be left out of the starting line-up altogether but it inadvertently proved to be a Klopp masterstroke. With Divock Origi’s seventh minute opener having reduced the deficit, the Dutchman was introduced into the fray at half-time in place of the injured Andy Robertson, with Milner moving to left-back, and within ten minutes Wijnaldum had scored twice to astonishingly draw Liverpool level on aggregate, sweeping Trent Alexander-Arnold’s right-wing cross beyond goalkeeper Marc-Andre ten Stegen and, 90 whirlwind seconds later, arching his back to steer a precise header from Xherdan Shaqiri’s centre into the top corner of the Kop end net as Anfield exploded in disbelieving joy.
Divock Origi’s assured 79th minute side-foot finish from Alexander-Arnold’s quickly-taken corner completed the most miraculous two-legged comeback Anfield had ever seen to send Liverpool to the Madrid final, with Wijnaldum producing one of the biggest cheers of the night during those agonising closing stages when a Barcelona goal would still have taken them through on away goals with a brilliant wriggle away from trouble when surrounded, and he admitted afterwards his performance had been motivated by the anger he felt at his rare omission from the team.
“It’s unbelievable. Once again we showed that everything is possible in football. It’s really emotional because I was really angry at the manager that he put me on the bench but I had to do something to help the team when I came on. I just tried to help the team and I’m happy that I could with two goals. After the game in Spain we were confident we could score four at home and win 4-0. I think the people from outside, they doubted us and thought we couldn’t do it but we won 4-0. I will say that we believed from the start that we could win 4-0. We know it is possible at this club. We found a way to do it.
“Klopp probably spoke to me during half-time but I was so angry that I didn’t listen to him. The only moment I listened to him was when the morning training stopped and he said, ‘Gini, you have to be ready because I need you when you come on.’ When I did come on, Pep Lijnders told me that when we built up I had to come into a back three to get the ball with the wing-backs higher. In my head, I was like, ‘No, no, no. I’m not going to do that. I just try to play up front, try to score goals.’ I was so angry that I wanted to do my own thing and, in the end, it helped.”
Wolverhampton Wanderers were beaten at Anfield the following Sunday on the final day of the Premier Leagsue campaign to ensure Liverpool finished the domestic campaign with club record 97 points but City’s win at Brighton meant they had agonisingly recorded one more and so retained their title but, three weeks later, Klopp’s men - with Wijnaldum restored to the starting line-up - saw off Tottenham Hotspur to at last win their first trophy under the German coach and ensure a season for the ages gained tangible and deserved reward.
As was the case following the Kyiv disappointment twelve months earlier, the hope was the Premier League title near-miss would inspire the Reds to go one better next time around and, filled with confidence having cast off their nearly-man tag, Liverpool simply steamrollered their way to the club’s first championship in thirty long years by winning 26 and drawing one of their first 27 league fixtures, tying matters up with a record seven games to spare and gaining a club record 99 points - 18 more than runners-up Manchester City - while also lifting the UEFA Super Cup and, for the first time, the World Club Cup.
WIjnaldum figured in all but one of the Reds’ Premier League matches, equalling his highest LFC goal tally from his debut season of six, and early on in the campaign Klopp paid glowing tribute, insisting his many attributes made him the perfect midfielder for what his team required even if the Dutchman did not always get the credit he deserved.
“It is just so obvious Gini's importance. It is both directions, small spaces, big spaces, it is hard challenges, fine football, pretty much all of that. Is he the perfect midfielder? From the skillset 100 per cent. He has all the things you need. There was his header against Barcelona too. He is not the tallest, but he is good in the air. He is a good jumper with good timing, all that stuff. It all makes him a pretty good footballer. That is how it should be. It is not my fault if he goes under the radar. You cannot ask me why he goes under the radar. I don’t set the radar!”
Despite the high regard the manager clearly held for him, Wijnaldum began the season of Liverpool’s title defence - played, as were the final delayed months of the title campaign, in front of empty stadiums due to the coronavirus pandemic - in the final year of his contract and with his future up in the air. Despite the likes of Salah, Mane, Milner, Matip, Origi, Firmino, Robertson and Alexander-Arnold having all received new deals, the Dutchman remained tethered to the same terms he had signed on for in 2016 and speculation began to build that the midfielder - who turned 30 in November 2020 - could walk away for free, with Barcelona - now managed by the Dutchman's former international coach Ronald Koeman - mooted as a likely destination despite the player himself and Klopp insisting they both wanted him to stay.
"Just ask Liverpool those questions”, Wijnaldum replied when probed over his future during the November international break. "Don't they answer?"
The issue rumbled on in the background of what was at times a tortuous season at Anfield where - deprived of a number of key players during an unprecedented injury crisis, as well as the emotional connection with their supporters which had proved such a key element of the Klopp era - the Reds, despite leading the Premier League at the turn of the year, suffered a shocking late winter collapse which saw them lose six successive matches at Anfield having previously been unbeaten on home soil since April 2017 to obliterate any hopes of retaining the title and put even Champions League qualification in real peril.
They recovered to eventually finish third spot, which was secured with a final day 2-0 victory over Crystal Palace at Anfield in which Wijnaldum was named captain with it now clear he would not be signing a new contract and was set to leave the club.
"I'm fighting against tears right now," he admitted having receiving a guard of honour from his team-mates after the match. "The people in Liverpool have shown me love during the five years. I will miss them, you know? I hoped to have played many more years for the club but unfortunately things went different. I have to start a new adventure. I didn't sign somewhere else."
“Gini Wijnaldum is an LFC legend - now and forever”, Klopp wrote in his programme notes that day. "What this person – this wonderful, joyful, selfless person – has done for our team and club I cannot sum up in words, in truth, because my English is not good enough. He is an architect of our success. We have built this Liverpool on his legs, lungs, brain and his huge, beautiful heart."
Weeks later, Paris Saint-Germain confirmed they had secured the Dutchman’s signature on a three-year deal and he admitted his decision to leave had been down to a sense of feeling under-appreciated by both the club’s decision-makers and some Liverpool fans, particularly on social media.
“It was beautiful at the end at Liverpool and, for weeks after, I thought about it. Not every player who leaves has that. But there was a moment when I didn’t feel loved and appreciated. Not my teammates, not the people at Melwood. From them, I know… I can say they all love me and I love them. It was not from that side, more the other side.
“I have to say also there was social media. When it went bad, I was the player who they blamed – that I wanted to leave. Every day in training and in the games, I gave everything I had to bring it to a good end because, during the years, Liverpool meant so much to me and because of the way the fans in the stadium were treating me. My feeling was that the fans in the stadium and the fans on social media were two different kinds. The fans in the stadium always supported me. Even when they came back after the Covid lockout, already knowing that I was going to leave, they still supported me and, in the end, they gave me a great farewell.
“On social media, there was a moment when I was like, ‘Wow. If they only knew what I was doing to stay fit and play every game.’ Other players might have said ‘OK, I am not fit.’ You get players in their last year who are like, ‘I’m not playing because it is a risk.’ I did the opposite. I didn’t always play good but, after the game, I could look in the mirror and say, ‘I gave it all. I trained hard to get better.’ Even with the physios… I took the most possible treatment I could get. I cannot remember when I had a day off because I played so many games and basically it was too much for the body but I did everything to stay fit.
“There was a story that Liverpool made an offer, I didn’t accept because I wanted more money and the fans made it like, ‘OK, he didn’t get the offer, so he doesn’t try his best to win games’. Then the results were not really good and everything looked like it was against me. Some moments, it was like, ‘Wow, me again?’ It’s a collective. But my teammates never gave me the feeling that I let them down or I was taking the p*** or something like that. With the team everything was fine. It was difficult to speak about football because every time, it was, ‘What are you going to do?’ Even my friends would read something and come to me and say, ‘Is this true? Oh, you are going to do this?’ I would say, ‘You will see what is going to happen.’ I just didn’t want to talk about it because it was, ‘My future this, my future that.’ That was basically my last season at Liverpool – the future of Gini Wijnaldum, not beautiful things on the pitch.”
Despite making 38 appearances as PSG cruised to another league title, Wijnaldum was unable to establish himself in the French capital like he had at Anfield, and after being left out of their Champions League squad for the start of the 2022/23 campaign, he joined Jose Mourinho’s Roma on loan only to suffer a broken leg which is expected to rule him out of much of the season as well as the forthcoming World Cup in Qatar.
Now 32, it remains to be seen whether the Dutchman’s playing career gets the conclusion his durability, dependability and versatility deserves but, given how events have played out since his departure for both Liverpool’s midfield and Wijnaldum himself, the decision to allow him to leave Anfield when he did feels like one both parties may now look back on with a sense of regret.
