Defeat to Wolves signals end of Rodgers era at Liverpool

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Liverpool were dumped out of the FA Cup on Monday evening with a squad that featured the last remnants of the Brendan Rodgers era.

Jurgen Klopp rotated heavily at Molineux. His starting XI featured two summer signings and three teenagers but the majority were players he inherited from Rodgers.

And they looked very out of date.

There were six Rodgers era players in the team. Simon Mignolet, Alberto Moreno, Dejan Lovren, James Milner, Divock Origi, and Daniel Sturridge. Adam Lallana was set to start, too, but had a minor knock.

Of those seven names, Milner is perhaps the only one who is still considered reliable. Lovren has never held that particular tag but he is a consistent member of the squad.

The rest, however, didn’t show anything to force their way back into Klopp’s new-look team.

The last of the Rodgers era

Origi did score, it should be said, and it was a fine goal. His overall performance couldn’t really be described that way, though. Origi has the ability to score out of nowhere but his overall input is sorely lacking. He rarely holds up the ball, frequently makes the wrong runs, and still looks like the 20-year-old Liverpool originally signed.

Mignolet is now Liverpool’s back-up goalkeeper and there isn’t much wrong with that. If he’s happy playing that role, it’s one he’s welcome to have, but he’s a long way from playing a role in the title race.

Moreno, a similarly maligned figure as Mignolet, showed exactly why he’s so far behind Andrew Robertson. Missed headers, missed tackles, missed passes – Moreno gave what you expect, all with that strange confidence in possession he has for someone never far from a mistake.

But while Moreno looks confident even when he’s struggling, the opposite can be said for Sturridge. Injuries have robbed him of his pace and the striker looks lost without that athleticism.

Sturridge needs to reinvent himself and Klopp can’t give him the necessary time to do that. It’s probably time he moves on, as sad as that is for a player who once looked set to do incredible things at Liverpool.

And then there’s Lallana, who summed up his situation perfectly last night. Lallana was once the key man in Klopp’s press but now he simply can’t put a string of games together. The boss talked him up before the Wolves game only for the England midfielder to pick up a knock and rule himself out.

If Lallana can’t get his fitness back, it’s difficult to see any role he can play in the squad going forward.

Klopp’s got his squad

The Rodgers era looks done at Liverpool. Klopp has been at the club for three and a half years now and his squad is firmly his. The remnants of Rodgers’ squad look finished, with even Milner and Lovren replaced in the first-choice XI.

It may have been predictable but the defeat to Wolves was confirmation – Klopp’s squad is now his, with only a little more tidying up to do.

There is now little doubt over which players he can rely on and few of them were on show last night.