Who To Pick From Liverpool

Drafting from Liverpool

Liverpool are joint-second on power at 88, and the first thing to correct is the size myth. A squad of 30 is big, but it is not the biggest on the wheel: Brighton carry 31, and Tottenham and Manchester United match Liverpool on 30. What Liverpool genuinely do own is the widest rating spread in the league at 12, a figure Chelsea and Manchester United equal but nobody exceeds.

That spread is the whole story. The top of the squad is superb. Alisson 94 in goal, Florian Wirtz 94 at CAM, Virgil van Dijk 93 at centre-back and Alexander Isak 92 through the middle. Then Ryan Gravenberch at 87, level with three others in fifth, and after them the floor drops away. The goalkeeping group is the clearest illustration: five keepers averaging 77, despite one of them being a 94. Draft Alisson and you have the best in the position. Draft any other Liverpool keeper by accident and you have a problem.

The attacking midfield group at 91 across two is the reliable one, and it is where the depth actually shows. Liverpool's 12 elite players are a healthy return rather than a dominant one. Arsenal have 18, Manchester City 15, Manchester United 15, and Tottenham 14. Liverpool's ceiling is higher than Arsenal's or Tottenham's. Their fifteenth-best player is not.

If you can spend on a legend, Steven Gerrard at 97 fits a real hole, not just the sentiment. Central midfield is precisely where this squad thins out. Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister at 87 are the only central midfielders in the top ten, and Gerrard is a ten-point upgrade on either in a position you would otherwise be filling from the shallow end of a 30-man squad. Mohamed Salah is rated the same 97, and with Federico Chiesa at 79 the only right winger on the books, the right wing is now where Liverpool are short too.