Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that he and Liverpool ‘really went all out’ in an attempt to convince Kylian Mbappe to join them in 2017.
“We flew in a circle. It was fantastic. And then he went to Paris,” Klopp joked while covering France’s World Cup quarter-final against Morocco on Thursday, which saw Mbappe score his eighth goal of the tournament.
The former Liverpool manager has admitted that he had dinner onboard a private jet with the Mbappe family while trying to woo Kylian. But what if the Reds’ efforts had been successful, and Mbappe joined alongside Mohamed Salah in a transformative summer nine years ago?
Klopp could have re-jigged his entire system
Though he became synonymous with a 4-3-3 formation while manager of Liverpool, Klopp had previously mainly used a 4-2-3-1 at Borussia Dortmund.
Had he signed Mbappe, it is likely that the German would have continued with this system, potentially using the young Frenchman as the main striker.
Although he was only 18 at the time of his encounter with Klopp, Mbappe would not have been joining to sit on the bench, and would surely have had a ticket straight into the starting line-up.
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Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that he tried to sign Kylian Mbappe back in 2017…
The biggest question over his signing is whether it would have impacted on Liverpool bringing Salah in in 2017. Given the money needed to get Mbappe, perhaps the Reds would have had to miss out on the Egyptian, but as they needed a right-sided forward as well, we think he’d have been signed anyway.
As a result, Klopp could have fielded a team including Mbappe, Salah, Roberto Firmino and then star forward Sadio Mane, with Philippe Coutinho on the books as well.
Had they bought Mbappe, it’s probable that Liverpool would have looked to balance the books with the sale of Coutinho, however, with the Brazilian already pushing to leave in the summer of 2017. Selling Coutinho would free Firmino up to play in the No. 10 role.
With Mane to his left, Salah to his right and Mbappe in front of him, Firmino would have been at the fulcrum of what could have been the most potent attacking line of all time.
The midfield would have had a big job on to balance that, but, with Fabinho still one year away from joining, Jordan Henderson and Gini Wijnaldum had the lung-power to make sure Liverpool were not left short in the middle.
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Once Fabinho – and then Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker – arrived in 2018, Klopp’s vision would have been complete, and one of the best teams in Premier League history could have been even better.
Alas, as Klopp says, Mbappe went to PSG, perhaps as he was always destined to do, and while Liverpool fans will wonder what could have been, it has all worked out just fine for the 27-year-old.
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