Liverpool Player Of The Season: New Signing Up For Race Against Veteran Icon!
As the season draws closer to the end, the race for Liverpool Men’s Player of the Season award intensifies with speculations and conversations.
The 2023-24 season would definitely go down in the Merseysiders‘ history as one of the most entertaining yet painful seasons.
The club started off the season with the departures of several senior key players like Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, Roberto Firmino, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Naby Keita and others.
However, the offloading helped the Reds to accommodate the signing of players like Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Wataru Endo and Ryan Gravenberch as the club completed one of the biggest midfield rebuilds in recent times.
The Title Shout
Even though everyone expected this season to be a season of transition with the integration of new signings, the team started off really well and soon redeemed themselves as the title challengers.
The new additions did not take much time to adapt to Jurgen Klopp‘s fast-paced ‘heavy metal’ playstyle and started producing excellent results.
Soon the Anfield giants were in the conversation of challenging for a quadruple which was still missing, despite the consecutive tries for the past two years.
But compared to the previous years, this year it was thought to be much easier as LFC were competing in the UEFA Europa League instead of the UEFA Champions League.
The Merseyside club advanced through the group stages with ease as they topped the group stage of the Europa League.
LFC cruised through the matches, managing to secure victories along the way. However, that did not last much longer as by the end of January Jurgen Klopp announced his decision to leave the Anfield club at the end of this season.
All Hope Lost
Even though the team managed to win the Carabao Cup against Chelsea in an intense final and everyone thought that it was the Reds’ first silverware in their quadruple hunt, things started to turn grim pretty quickly.
Liverpool dramatically lost the FA Cup quarter-final against bitter rivals Manchester United and within a month’s span, they exited from the Europa League after a 3-1 aggregate loss to Atalanta.
The hopes of a quadruple were demolished but they still had a chance to win the neck-and-neck PL title race. But after several points lost from draws and losses, the slimmer chances of that have vanished.
Liverpool will likely finish third in the PL points table and the team would not be able to send off Klopp in the manner they had intended to.
Liverpool Player Of The Season Award: The Race Is On!
The last few days of this season have brought in discussions of players being up for a head-to-head race for the ‘Player of the Season Award’.
Despite the disappointing end to this season, fans and pundits just cannot be arguing about the sheer class and character some of the players have shown.
Some of the most influential players would definitely make the list of the top candidates. We at Anfield Home have predicted four players who can possibly win the award and made the case for them.
1. Virgil van Dijk
Van Dijk was handed the captain’s armband at the beginning of this season with the departure of long-serving skipper Jordan Henderson.
Although the Dutch giant had fulfilled the role of the Reds’ leader on a few occasions in the past seasons, this was his first season as full-time captain. He played the most minutes in the team with 3.982 minutes spent on the pitch.
Van Dijk did not disappoint as he played 47 of 57 matches the Merseysiders played so far across all competitions. While captaining the side on 44 occasions, the reliable veteran managed a 61% victory rate.
Playing from the back, the no. 4 scored four goals, assisted two, averaged one tackle and 0.7 interceptions along with a 90% pass completion rate across all competitions (stats correct as of 15.05.24) (stats via Whoscored).
The LFC skipper has also been nominated for the EA SPORTS 2023/24 Player of the Season Award alongside several top PL players, being the defender in the eight-player nominees’ shortlist.
Van Dijk will surely be one of the top candidates to win both awards.
2. Alexis Mac Allister
The Argentine World Cup-winning midfielder, Mac Allister, was one of the four latest additions to the Merseyside team.
Since joining the Reds from Brighton last summer, the 25-year-old has registered six goals and 7 assists across all competitions with one game of the season remaining. If everyone remembers, most of his goals have come from some absolute screamers which were a spectacle for the audiences.
Mac Allister has been one of the few players in the club’s history who has seamlessly transitioned and adapted to the team’s playstyle in little to no time. He has successfully fulfilled the role of a no. 6 and no. 8 whenever Klopp has relied upon the 1.76m midfielder.
The Argentine averages 85% passing accuracy, 2.8 tackles, 1.3 interceptions, and 1.6 key passes per game across all competitions. These stats speak volumes for the new arrival at Anfield (stats correct as of 15.05.24) (stats via Whoscored).
Alexis Mac Allister could rightfully be the winner of the 2023-24 Liverpool Player Of The Season Award.
3. Luis Diaz
Even though many would not consider the Columbian forward, Luis Diaz, as a potential winner, an argument can be made for him.
The former Porto winger made 50 appearances for the English giants, one of the most-used members of the squad after Darwin Nunez, Harvey Elliot, Cody Gakpo and Joe Gomez.
In terms of minutes played, Diaz is second in the team with 3,542 minutes right after skipper Virgil van Dijk.
The 27-year-old winger has scored 13 goals and assisted five goals while averaging an 85.6% pass completion rate, 1.7 dribbles and 1.6 key passes across all competitions (stats correct as of 15.05.24) (stats via Whoscored).
Although the Columbian suffered a setback with his father’s kidnapping and the whole episode of recovering him safely, he has thrived under pressure situations.
Luis Diaz would definitely put up a solid fight against his fellow Liverpool teammates.
4. Joe Gomez
Lastly, the English defender, Joe Gomez, would be a wild shout. However, his case this season would show otherwise.
2023-24 was his second-highest season in terms of playtime acquired with 3,131 minutes since the 2019-20 season and his highest in terms of appearances made as he graced the pitch 51 times.
Even though the 26-year-old is traditionally a centre-back, Klopp had to use him as both right-back, left-back and even as a defensive-midfielder due to the several injuries sustained throughout the season.
Although Gomez is yet to score his first LFC goal despite joining the club back in 2015, he registered three assists across all competitions.
The former Charlton Athletic player averaged 1.5 tackles, 0.7 interceptions, 1.4 clearances and an 85.3% pass completion rate (stats correct as of 15.05.24) (stats via Whoscored).
Often gone unnoticed and off the spotlight, Joe Gomez can easily be considered a strong contender for the award after a strong season.
The race for the 2023-24 Liverpool Player Of The Season Award has heated up and the worthy contender would win the prestigious award.
Fans can vote for their favourite player here.
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