Liverpool did something for the first time since since 2005 against Brentford this afternoon

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Liverpool headed in search of a first ever win at Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium this afternoon.

The Reds had never won in two previous visits to the West London ground, with Jurgen Klopp hopeful of putting that to rest in his last visit today.

Their task was made a little more difficult with injury news biting them in the days leading up to the match. Alisson Becker the latest to be ruled out.

As a result of those injuries and various other squad-related bits and pieces, Jurgen Klopp’s hand was rather forced with his XI. And according to statistician Michael Reid on X, this led to something very rare occurring with the Liverpool line-up.

“All 11 players in Liverpool’s starting XI today are of a different nationality,” says Reid.

“It’s only the third time LFC have named 11 different nationalities in a starting XI, also doing so v Bayer Leverkusen in February 2005 and Yeovil in January 2004.”

Liverpool name global XI

This is a fantastic little statistic which just goes to show how diverse the current Liverpool squad is.

For those wanting a run-down, the list of nations – from Caoimhin Kelleher to Darwin Nunez is as follows:

Ireland, Northern Ireland, France, Netherlands, Scotland, Japan, Argentina, England, Portugal, Colombia, Uruguay. Remarkable!

Unfortunately, the united nations XI didn’t manage to last the half. With Curtis Jones being replaced by Ryan Gravenberch after 34 minutes, Liverpool gained a second Dutch player.

Mohamed Salah’s introduction before half-time increased the number of countries to have been on show to 12, though.

Another change at the break meant that Liverpool went from having no duplicate nationalities in the team, to having three from the Netherlands. Cody Gakpo on for Nunez.

As the Reds continue to struggle with injuries, more of these types of things might be thrown up. They can’t currently put their best XI out there.

Then again, looking at those who are out, there are a number of other possibilities, too. Hungary, Brazil, Spain, Greece, four more countries represented in the Reds squad but not out there today.

Given how rare this has been though, don’t expect to see it again anytime soon.