Klopp's first Liverpool XI v Klopp's latest Liverpool XI

Jurgen Klopp took over Liverpool on 8 of October 2015 from Brendan Rodgers after having won two back to back titles with Dortmund in the Bundesliga. Liverpool were in desperate need of managerial change.

After an "almost" 2013-14 season, where they finished second in the Premier League, Liverpool under Rogers could not keep the momentum going, largely due to the loss of Luis Suarez. That is when the management decided to bring in Klopp, mid-season.

His first game in charge was against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane. Though the team held Spurs to a 0-0 draw, they never really looked convincing. Since then, Klopp has led them to a top-four finish, a UEFA Champions League final and made Liverpool arguably the best team in the League and favourites to win it this year.

Here is a comparison between the playing XI that Klopp inherited from Rogers and the XI that he usually puts out on the field today. The formation for the Tottenham game was a 4-3-3 and thus the comparison will be with a 4-3-3 even though recently Klopp prefers the 4-2-3-1 formation. Also, the recent list will consider the currently injured players as without them the real XI will not be on display.

Goalkeepers

Simon Mignolet (2015) v Alisson Becker (2019)

Liverpool's goalkeepers

To be fair, Mignolet was very good in that particular match against Spurs. He made crucial saves and helped Liverpool keep a long-awaited clean sheet. Mignolet recorded his 13th clean sheet, more than any other keeper in 2015.

However, he never really managed to earn the trust of the Anfield faithful, something that Alisson has been able to do. Alisson has shown his skills on the ball and his shot-stopping ability. Apart from the mistake against Leicester, which he vowed never to repeat and the error against Man Utd, he has been brilliant between the sticks, making match-saving stops against Brighton, Chelsea, Napoli and many other teams. Definitely an improvement over his predecessors.

Fullbacks

Nathaniel Clyne & Alberto Moreno (2015) v Trent Alexander-Arnold & Andy Robertson (2019)

Moreno and Clyne were the starters back then

Clyne was one of those players that stood out during that season and was arguably the most reliable Liverpool player. On the other hand, Moreno was, to put it lightly, disappointing. He looked decent while attacking but was equally poor while defending. Wingers ran rings around him and like Mignolet never looked trustworthy. Although he showed improvement in the start of the 2017/18 season, he got injured and was replaced by the new signing, Robertson.

Alexander-Arnold and Robertson have earned the tag of the top two full-back pairings in the league and Robertson is being touted as the best left-back in world football. They love to bomb down the wing to provide width but at the same time pay full attention to their defensive duties.

Liverpool's starting fullbacks

At the moment it would not be fair to say that Clyne deserved to be replaced by a new right-back, if not for injury. However, in the Robertson-Moreno comparison, the Scotland captain wins by a massive margin.

Centre-Backs

Martin Skrtel & Mamadou Sakho (2015) v Joe Gomez & Virgil van Dijk (2019)

Sakho and Skrtel were the centre-back pairing in 2015

Even though both players are good defenders individually, their partnership never really sparked into life. Liverpool had many defensive problems that season and even though they kept a clean sheet, it was more down to Mignolet's performance. Skrtel was then transferred to Fenerbahce and Sakho, due to his rule-breaking attitude, was shipped off to Crystal Palace.

Liverpool currently have the best defence in the Premier League

The partnership of van Dijk and Gomez has offered Liverpool a brilliant defensive start to the season. Liverpool are winning more matches on defensive abilities rather than offensive. The job of ensuring that the 1-0 wins are secured, has been fulfilled extraordinarily by van Dijk and Gomez. Both of them have amazing pace for centre-backs and are rarely out of position. Definitely one of Liverpool's best defensive pairings not far behind the likes of Carragher and Hyypia in terms of potential.

Midfielders

Lucas Leiva, Emre Can & James Milner (2015) v Jordan Henderson, Georginio Wijnaldum & James Milner (2019)

Lucas, Can & Milner were the midfield trio in 2015

Similarly to Skrtel and Sakho, these players were not bad individually. However, they still performed decently together. Lucas was a cult hero at Liverpool, but the club definitely needed to move on to improve. Can was beginning to show his ability but decided to not sign a new contract and moved on a free transfer to Juventus. Milner is the only player to survive the test of time in terms of regular playing time.

With Fabinho just beginning to perform well, Keita not yet settled, the most reliable midfielders so far have been Henderson, Wijnaldum and Milner. Wijnaldum is one of the most underrated players in the league and has been performing like a superstar. Henderson again falls into the underrated category and is a brilliant midfielder.

Milner started the season as arguably the best player but has trailed off a bit. However, his performances are never poor and he gives his 100 percent in every game. As for an overall performance goes, the new midfield is an improvement over the Spurs game in 2015.

Forwards

Adam Lallana, Philippe Coutinho & Divock Origi (2015) v Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino (2019)

Coutinho left Liverpool in the middle of last season

This is the part of the field that underperformed the most. Although Coutinho was decent, the other two did not contribute much. Origi did not feature much and was never a real goalscorer. Though he did start a run of scoring in the next season under Klopp, injury halted his progress and now struggles to get first-team minutes.

Lallana' story is similar in the sense that he too performed poorly in that season, then gave brilliant performances in the next two seasons, confirming the first-team birth but then injury caused a hindrance and now is way down the pecking order. Coutinho was arguably Liverpool's best player then and in the next season but got his dream move to Barcelona.

There are no words left to describe the front three of Salah, Mane and Firmino. They are the best attacking trio in the world currently after their exploits last season. Salah won the big individual awards of the league as well as UEFA awards. They have been on fire and though they might not be scoring as freely as before, they are still very dangerous on the counter.

With Firmino's hard work and Mane and Salah's guile and pace, this trio is hard to stop and without an ounce of a doubt better than the front three Klopp put out in his first game in charge of Liverpool.