Fabinho and six other players to leave Liverpool after Real Madrid defeat

Real Madrid knocked Liverpool out of the UEFA Champions League in the last 16 with a 6-2 aggregate scoreline. Luis Diaz's absence affected their attacking performance, with no energy and little fire in the box. They competed for 20 minutes. Cornered the champions at Anfield. They scored two goals, wasted a couple more. Heavy metal live, as coach Jurgen Klopp touts. He forgot the lesson of PSG, Chelsea and Manchester City in 2022. He blinked and the Merengue comeback snuffed it out with goals from Vinicius, Militao and Benzema. At the Bernabeu another from the French Ballon d'Or winner was enough to send him home bitterly.

Liverpool lost the energy to sustain the dominance with which they once crushed rivals. The departure of Sadio Mané to Bayern Munich left Luis Díaz as the heir to the attacking aggression, the wide-ranging repertoire of tackling and the ability to do damage with his diagonals, open up space or find the ideal mid-range profile. Until his injury in October, the Colombian was one of the best. Records of the specialised portal BeSoccer show that in his absence, the average number of attacking duels dropped by up to two points. He went from 25 to 23. The same site supports the winger's influence with more figures. His statistics in terms of shots on goal, fouls conceded, passes in the box and successful dribbles also dropped. Intensity is lacking.

In the Premier League for example, the drop is profound. In the 2021-2022 campaign, in which he fought for the title until the last game, he scored 84 goals in 38 games with just two defeats. To date, they have 47 in 26 games, 15 fewer than leaders Arsenal and 20 fewer than second-placed Manchester City. The two leaders have twice as many wins. They have no strikers in the top five, led by Kevin De Bruyne with 12 goals.

The Liverpool clean-up

To try to improve the team, many movements are expected in the team for the next semester. According to the Express Sport website there are seven players who will leave the team starting with Brazilian star Fabinho. They are Joe Gomez, Curtis Jones, Nat Phillips, James Milner, Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.