As Sadio Mane walks through the Liverpool exit door, the Reds triumvirate that has served Jurgen Klopp so well in attack over the past five years is no more. With the Senegalese, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino all now the wrong side of 30 and out of contract in 2023, club bosses knew this day was coming but that doesn’t make it any easier for supporters to say goodbye.
How could it not be? This is the trio that scored the goals which saw Liverpool crowned champions of England, Europe and even the world with them all securing their statuses as bonafide clubs legends as a result. But in truth, it has been some time since the trio were an untouchable force in attack, with the arrivals of Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz ensuring a changing of the guard was taking place in plain sight.
Regardless of if Salah and Firmino also depart in 2023 or not, this next generation of Klopp’s Reds, with new £85m man Darwin Nunez leading the line, is set to feel very different to the familiar presence that transformed Liverpool from doubters into believers.
READ MORE: Sadio Mane set to join Bayern Munich after £35m transfer agreed with Liverpool
With the trio all the same age and out of the contract at the same time, the Reds were always facing this dreaded prospect of requiring a sudden overhaul upfront. In truth, it is a blessing that Mane has forced Liverpool hands by pushing for an exit now 12 months ahead of his contract expiry, along with Tottenham Hotspur’s effort to sign Diaz forcing the club to move for the Colombian six months early back in January, to maintain some stability and establish a gradual passing on of the baton.
But an almighty task now lies in wait for the players set to step into these, for so long impossible to fill, shoes. Diaz’s explosive start to life at Anfield suggests he will fill the void left by Mane on the left just fine, with Klopp’s decision to move the Senegalese central so he could start the winger in his favoured position even suggesting that the German was always thinking long-term and no stranger to the possibility of no longer having the 30-year-old at his disposal.
Yet injuries saw Jota’s progress curtailed last season despite another prolific campaign which saw him offer up 21 goals. But having seemingly moved ahead of Firmino in the pecking order centrally as a result, only four of those goals came following Salah and Mane’s return from the Africa Cup of Nations as the Portuguese became the fall-guy to this new-look but now briefly put-together attack.
As a result, he featured more outwide during the second half of the season and now finds himself competing with £134m of talent and Klopp’s two latest big-money signings for a place in the Liverpool starting XI. A daunting prospect, no doubt, but one he will relish in pre-season.
Yet Mane’s exit has given us a glimpse into how the Reds will approach Salah and Firmino’s own departures when the time comes as this next generation of Liverpool emerges. While they might still hold out hope of retaining the Egyptian’s services, they will not break the wage structure for any player with it not certainly currently not a surprise if he departed on a Bosman transfer next summer as a result.
As successful as this attacking trio has been for Klopp, he always has one eye on the future as opposed to getting caught in the present. There is no room for sentimentality in football.
“What I am really happy about is that we are in the transformation – not a transformation like 'bam' (clicks fingers) – it's more slight…” he told listening journalists before the Champions League final. “We have a wonderful, wonderful squad but it's natural that a few things will change. Not now, but in the future, and I think then it makes sense that I'm around.
“It's not now, it's not next year, but it might be in two or three years or whatever, and it really makes sense that the right people are doing that because we all know supporters are loyal - 'How can you do that?' - and there must be some people who make the right decisions.
“Open space for the next generation, while keeping the present generation on the highest possible level, judge it in the right manner, and use the fantastic opportunity we have in the moment.”
Mane’s exit is the most obvious sign yet of this transformation, with Nunez his direct replacement in attack. But as Liverpool adjust and move forward, the Uruguayan is also a replacement for both Firmino and Salah, from a certain point of view, with him taking the Brazilian’s previous untouchable central berth and inevitably being tasked with the responsibility of chief goalscorer when the Egyptian follows the Senegalese out of the door.
With Diaz on the left alongside Nunez, two-thirds of the next Liverpool attack has already emerged. And while the Reds will no doubt like Salah to remain as part of a new-look trio, he is now the wrong side of 30 and won’t have the longevity at Anfield ahead of him of his two younger team-mates.
So who takes that place on the right as Liverpool continue to move forward? Are the Reds secretly plotting their next big-money signing in attack, or will an opportunity open up for the likes of Harvey Elliott or Kaide Gordon?
Either way, Mane’s exit signals that the days of Klopp’s first great Liverpool side who won the lot are now over and this great front three that served Kopites together for five seasons is no more.
Replacing elite players from a position of strength, the Reds are entering uncharted territory with it over three decades since they last truly dealt with their prized assets walking away from a Liverpool on top. But this is Klopp’s next challenge, to keep his side on top. As extraordinary as these seasons have been, they need to be made ordinary and be seen as only the beginning.
If the £85m price-tag wasn’t enough pressure for Nunez, his arrival will act as a decisive symbol of whether Liverpool can prove there is life after Mane and keep moving forward without such synonymous names in the years ahead. The famous front three is dead. Long live the front three.
