There is an obscene amount of narrative surrounding Wednesday's Champions League semi-final first leg between Barcelona and Liverpool, and it all surrounds Luis Suarez.
The man who scored 82 goals in 133 games for the Reds of course opened the scoring as Barca knocked out their historic rivals Manchester United (or at least tried to, before Luke Shaw stole the credit) on their way to the semi-finals.
Luis Suárez heads back towards goal and it deflects off Luke Shaw and into the Man Utd net.
— Squawka News (@SquawkaNews) April 10, 2019
UEFA have announced that it will go down as an own goal. pic.twitter.com/NXNgGqu9MP
As he prepares to face off with his former employers for the first time since leaving in 2014, the 'full-circle' vibe around the upcoming clash is amplified further when you remember that he was the man, more than anyone, who was responsible for Liverpool's last real Premier League title challenge.
With Jurgen Klopp's side firing on all cylinders domestically and in Europe, however, it does finally seem as though Suarez is a distant memory. His departure may have once rocked the boat at Anfield and arguably cost Brendan Rodgers his job, but with all the goals and controversies that have come in between, and the complete rebuild Liverpool have since undergone, we find ourselves deep into a different era.
Indeed, in Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino, Liverpool have finally found the formula to replace Luis Suarez. But it has been a long time coming.
The Dark Ages
Following the 2013/14 season in which Suarez and his partner-in-crime Daniel Sturridge hit 56 Premier League goals between them, The Uruguayan wasn't a happy man. Despite his best efforts, his team still threw the league title over the course of the last three games, and having been involved in the latest pair in a long string of controversies, he wanted out. Liverpool, having seen enough of his antics, decided to sell.
Given the bad press that surrounded him at the time, his departure from Anfield was a bitter-sweet one, but his absence was certainly felt. Brendan Rodgers was given the following season to try and re-build and rediscover the form that came so close to firing them to the title, but failed dramatically, largely thanks to his futile efforts to replace his enigmatic front-man.
Over the next 16 months or so, Mario Balotelli, Rickie Lambert and Christian Benteke were all given cracks at being the next Suarez, but when none of them worked (shock horror) and a sixth-placed finish followed another underwhelming start to the 2015/16 campaign, the Northern Irishman's card was marked, as former Borussia Dortmund boss Jurgen Klopp came in to replace him.
In the long run, that summer transfer window didn't prove to be a complete failure, however. Roberto Firmino, James Milner and Joe Gomez all joined before Rodgers' swan song season, and would prove to be important building blocks going forward.
Moving Forward
Fast forward to summer 2016 now, and Jurgen Klopp is starting to figure out how to get goals out of his side on a consistent basis.
Most notably, this is when the decision was made to play instead with an attacking unit, with goals spread across the front line, rather than with a single focal point. This shift away from the system of old as Klopp found his feet saw Roberto Firmino and new signing Sadio Mane spend much of the season flanking either Divock Origi or Daniel Sturridge (when he was fit), and though neither quite became a talismanic presence, they each hit double figures. The Reds scored 15 goals more in the Premier League than they did in the previous season.
This step back towards their attacking best provided Champions League football yet again, with a top four finished secured on the last day of the season, and by this point, a clear identity starting to emerge. They now had a reputation for pressing high and playing at a blistering pace, and with the feel-good factor back at Anfield, things would only get better.
Mohamed Salah
It's not strictly true that Mohamed Salah was the eventual 'replacement' for Suarez that summer. The only real parallel between the two was the fact that they scored obscene amounts of goals, but just having another prolific goalscorer to rely on did take them to another level, and severed the residual ties to the Rodgers era.
Salah, Mane and Firmino - now playing in a central role - created an attacking force that truly rivalled that which they had boasted three years earlier, and no longer lacking in world class attackers, things went from strength to strength.
44 goals in 52 games for Salah over the course of the season fired Liverpool to a Champions League final, with Firmino and Mane netting a modest 47 between them, and the blueprint for the future of Liverpool's attack was written in stone.
They haven't been too bad this season either. Though not quite hitting the same levels - with the focus shifting from gung-ho attack to a more efficient, balanced approach - the trio have shared 65 goals since the start of this campaign.
Looking Ahead
Throw in a world class centre-back and one of the best goalkeepers on the planet , and here we are. Luis Suarez - written into the past by Liverpool's recent successes - prepares to remind his former side exactly what they have missed over the last five years.
@LuisSuarez9 and @Phil_Coutinho warn of danger posed by Liverpool. It will be a special game for the pair of former 'Reds' #BarçaLFC pic.twitter.com/lepYd53Zu3
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) April 29, 2019
Sending Suarez, Messi, Coutinho and co. packing would be the perfect symbolic gesture to cap things off, but regardless of how things play out over the next week or so, Liverpool will still be glad of the changes that the Uruguayan's departure instigated.
Even if he has scored a preposterous amount of goals for Barcelona.
Source : 90min