Jurgen Klopp faces seven-player Liverpool contract dilemma that could shape transfer plans

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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has a handful of contract dilemmas to deal this summer, with a significant number of his first-team squad entering crucial phases in their Anfield careers. Decisions over the futures of certain players could go a long way to determining the extent of transfer business Liverpool do over the offseason.

The German manager has seven regular starting players who are out of contract in 2022 or 2023, with the transfer values of those now only going to decline as they get closer to the expiry of their deals.

Among those is James Milner who is entering the last 12 months of his current agreement from June. The 35-year-old remains one of Klopp’s most trusted servants having made 34 appearances this season, only being denied more by muscle injuries.

And while Milner will be 36 in January, his experience in the dressing room is of immense value to the Liverpool team and he remains a dependable performer on the pitch too.

Klopp will surely want to replace that somehow if it’s decided the best course of action is for Milner to leave the Merseyside outfit rather than sign another 12-month deal, although no replacement will be sought until next year if the ex-England international does depart.

Back-up goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher is also out of contract in 2022 though having made himself the No 2 to Alisson, an extension will presumably be easy enough to agree.

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Liverpool then have 10 players whose current deals expire in 2023, with six of them vital players for the soon-to-be-dethroned Premier League champions even though they do not have long left on their contracts.

Captain Jordan Henderson, forwards Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino, centre-back Virgil van Dijk and defensive midfielder Fabinho are the six in question.

Right now, with it looking unlikely Champions League will be played at Anfield in the 2021-22 season, Liverpool would surely be loathed to losing any of them.

Salah is perhaps the only player who could realistically leave with Paris Saint-Germain said to be keen on the Egyptian if Kylian Mbappe leaves the French giants for Real Madrid this summer. Real and Barcelona have also long been linked with Salah.

Yet clearly Liverpool must decide the long-term plans for all of the six. Van Dijk, Fabinho and Henderson will surely all get new multiple-year deals sooner rather than later due to their enormous influence.

But the productivity of both Mane and Firmino has dropped off in the last 12 months (or longer in the latter’s case) to leave question marks as to whether they warrant new deals, especially given they will turn 30 before next summer.

In Diogo Jota Liverpool have another forward capable of starting over either of the pair and Klopp wants to bring in another high-level attacker this summer to upgrade on Divock Origi and Xherdan Shaqiri.

Salah, by contrast, continues to offer goals and assists – 29 and four in 46 games this term – with outstanding consistency and only turns 29 this June.

But he is also the most sellable and a big-money bid for Salah might tempt Liverpool this summer given it would allow them to reinvest in several positions across a slowly-ageing squad.

The club’s hierarchy must decide whether they are going to give in to his demands to sign a lucrative new deal or whether they plan to sell him, which would mean offloading this summer or in 12 months’ time.

The situation with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Naby Keita, Shaqiri and Nat Phillips – the other four players out of contract in 2023 – is somewhat simpler.

All four players are likely to move on before then, with Oxlade-Chamberlain having played just 274 minutes of first-team football this season.

Keita has not been seen since being hauled off before half-time against Real Madrid in Spain last month and his incessant injury issues mean the Guinean appears increasingly unlikely to live up to the expectations he arrived with three years ago.

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Shaqiri is one of the players most likely to be sold in the upcoming summer window while Phillips is expected to fall victim of Liverpool’s returning centre-backs.

The likely addition of Ibrahima Konate from RB Leipzig gives Klopp another high-level option on top of Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Joel Matip and possibly even loanee Ozan Kabak, who could join permanently from Schalke for £18million.

Should multiple players of those out of contract in the next two years leave this summer then Liverpool will need to recruit replacements, on top of already wanting to sign a new forward, a new centre-back and a successor to Gini Wijnaldum, who appears Barcelona bound.

But in the background they also know that with the other seven players, plans need to be put in place as to whether they intend to extend their Liverpool careers or whether they want to move them on – and if so, who they want to sign to replace them. Decisions aplenty for Klopp and co. and there could be some major outgoings and incomings in the process.

Liverpool contracts

Out of contract in 2022

James Milner, Caoimhin Kelleher, Ben Woodburn

Out of contract in 2023

Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino, Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho, Jordan Henderson, Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Xherdan Shaqiri, Nat Phillips

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