Jurgen Klopp reaping the rewards as Liverpool reach sweet spot of squad building

“Joe Gomez, what a game,” enthused Jurgen Klopp. “Naby Keita, what a game. James Milner, what a game. Diogo Jota – oh my god, what a game.” There are times when it seems as though the Liverpool manager is never happier than when praising his squad players and even Jota’s 21 goals this season may not have spared him the status of deluxe back-up.

Klopp possesses a world record for number of tributes to Divock Origi. He extended his own unrivalled tally of homages to Milner, who was summoned from the sidelines to star – albeit in utterly unglamorous fashion – in Saturday’s 1-0 win at Newcastle. Keita’s decider featured three prominent contributions from players, in Milner, Jota and the Guinean, who Klopp had brought into the side. His five changes were an illustration of his enviable choices. “The selection game is so important,” he reflected. In one respect, it has got easier; in another, harder.

Klopp has already branded this his best ever squad. If it is created largely by brilliant recruitment, there are other factors: a need to fast-track the planned arrival of Luis Diaz, the inability to sell Origi last summer, the way Kostas Tsimikas and Thiago Alcantara have kicked on this season, the reality virtually everyone has been fit in recent weeks. There are players who have adapted to give even more alternatives: Sadio Mane has reinvented himself as a centre forward and Gomez, rather than looking like a centre-back playing right-back, is doing his best Trent Alexander-Arnold impression in the final third.

And yet if Liverpool are in a sweet spot on the pitch, in a four-fold challenge for honours, they may also be in terms of squad building. Everything has converged to give them a depth of talent that even Manchester City