State of Play: Are Liverpool stagnating or gearing up for another push?

Last season Liverpool won the Premier League for the first time in their history, ending 30 years of hurt for their fans.

However the Covid-19 pandemic has seriously impacted their ability to bolster the squad, while they have had to watch some of their rivals make big waves in the market.

But this is a team that won the league by 18 points, so perhaps it's hard to improve. Here are how things stand just days away from the new season starting.

It was pretty clear early on that Liverpool wanted some depth behind Andy Robertson but they were priced out of a move for Norwich City’s Jamal Lewis. Tsimikas, a Greek international, provided the necessary depth at a far more affordable price.

There hasn’t been anything too surprising in terms of departures as Liverpool look to trim the wage bill and streamline the squad.

The big one Liverpool fans are waiting for is the potential arrival of Thiago Alcantara from Bayern Munich. This was reported to be a foregone conclusion but the Spain international is still in Germany.

To compound matters there are now reports that Manchester United of all clubs are starting to get involved .

One potential way Thiago will arrive on Merseyside is if Georginio Wijnaldum leaves. The Dutchman has been linked with a cut-price move to Barcelona with his contract set to expire next summer. That could free up the necessary funds to seal the Thiago deal.

Other than that, it is notable that Loris Karius and Harry Wilson are still at the club. Liverpool have told Karius he is not needed while they have told any teams interested in Wilson they will only listen to permanent offers.

Off the pitch the club’s now infamous throw-ins coach Thomas Gronnemark has seen his contract extended for the 2020-21 season.

On it, with so few incomings, you can expect far more appearances from the club’s crop of promising youngsters.

Rhian Brewster, Curtis Jones, Ki-Jana Hoever, Harvey Elliott and Neco Williams are all set for more prominent roles in the first team this season.

It's easy to knock Liverpool given their inactivity, and obviously their Community Shield defeat against Arsenal raised a few eyebrows, but there is another factor at play here.

Just once in the last decade has a team defended the Premier League, a testament to the difficulty of the competition. That team was Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side. However they did also splash £60 million on Riyad Mahrez in the intervening summer, even if that represented a relatively quiet window by their standards. Even with the addition of Mahrez they only edged out Klopp’s team by one point.

This summer City, United and Chelsea have all spent with the intention of closing the gap, and they aren’t finished either. The latter pair might be slightly too far off to close said gap in just one summer but City possess a real threat, particularly if they bring in Kalidou Koulibaly.

But Liverpool are champions until told otherwise and there weren’t many teams who could find an answer to them last year. Imagine what might happen if Roberto Firmino or one of the midfielders step up and contribute even further in the goal tally column.