Liverpool awards 2023-24: Best & worst player, best & worst transfer, top scorer

Updated: 24 May 2024 14:33 BST
6 min read

Liverpool had a strange season overshadowed by Jurgen Klopp's exit announcement.

After a brilliant start to the campaign, which reached its apotheosis at Wembley when the Reds defeated Chelsea with a team composed of academy kids to win the Carabao Cup, the dream of giving Klopp a quadruple send-off fizzled out.

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Liverpool spurned their chances of winning the FA Cup, Premier League and Europa League in a matter of weeks in the spring and ultimately ended the league campaign in third, seven points off Arsenal and nine behind champions Man City.

Below, FootballTransfers runs through our Liverpool awards for the 2023-24 campaign...

© IMAGO - Virgil van Dijk and Jurgen Klopp

Liverpool's Player of the Season

As Liverpool's season was a real mixed bag, it is difficult to pick players for these awards. There is an argument to be made that new signing Alexis Mac Allister was the club's Player of the Season as he saved the Reds on more than one occasion by running the show in midfield.

Mohamed Salah finished the campaign as Liverpool's top scorer, but his form, particularly at the end of the season, makes it difficult to argue that he should be the club's Player of the Season.

Then, there is captain Virgil van Dijk. The Dutchman endured a dire 2022-23 season but managed to recapture the form that once made him one of the world's best centre-backs in the bygone campaign. Van Dijk was probably more consistently brilliant than Mac Allister, hence why the captain is our Player of the Season.

Liverpool's Flop of the Season

This one is tough because there are a few candidates here. Trent Alexander-Arnold, though injuries did him no favours, was often exposed defensively and made more mistakes than a player of his quality should make.

Ryan Gravenberch arrived from Bayern Munich for a whopping €40 million in the summer, but his impact over the course of the season was negligible. Cody Gakpo was at one point the scapegoat for Liverpool's poor form, but he finished the campaign in strong fashion.

Dominik Szoboszlai was solid but perhaps did not have the impact a €70m signing should have had. Luis Diaz is a player who puts in the hard yards but fluffs his lines when he gets in promising positions. None of the names mentioned here, however, can hold a candle to Darwin Nunez.

Is it harsh to call someone who scored 18 goals and netted 13 assists the Flop of the Season? Absolutely. But Nunez is, in many ways, the face of Liverpool's late-season collapse. His dreadful finishing has shown no signs of improving and his inability to stay onside is frustrating, to say the least.

The myriad chances he squandered in the run-in cost Liverpool big time and despite his solid numbers, the Uruguayan actually did not manage to score against a top-half side after September - in any competition. Nunez may not be a lost cause, but he was certainly Liverpool's Flop of the Season.

Liverpool's Top Scorer

This one is fairly straightforward. Mohamed Salah ended the campaign with 25 goals and 14 assists to his name and therefore leads the way in both categories. The Egyptian was far from his scintillating best in 23-24 but is still an eminently dangerous player.

There is a reason why Liverpool have no intention to sell the 31-year-old despite the lucrative Saudi offers that will surely come their way this summer.

Liverpool's Best Transfer

Liverpool signed four players in the summer of 2023, but the clear standout was Alexis Mac Allister. When used in his favoured No.8 role - which wasn't always the case - the Argentine World Cup winner was outstanding.

The former Brighton man contributed with seven goals and seven assists and is Liverpool's undisputed Best Transfer of the 23-24 season.

Liverpool's Worst Transfer

As mentioned above, Dominik Szoboszlai is yet to have the impact many expected of him and he was the Reds' most expensive acquisition at a whopping €70m, but at least the Hungarian played regularly and netted a respectable seven goals while contributing four assists.

Ryan Gravenberch, however, had even less of an impact than Szoboszlai. The Dutchman played 38 times, scoring four and assisting two goals. The 22-year-old is a good carrier of the ball but rarely showed this over the course of the season. Gravenberch didn't really do anything wrong, unlike someone like Nunez, but that is partially because he, well, didn't really do anything in the first place.

Liverpool's Best Youngster

This one is another toss-up. Harvey Elliott, Conor Bradley and Jarrel Quansah all have a solid case for having been Liverpool's Best Youngster. Elliott's importance grew as the season went on and, when playing in his favoured midfield role rather than as Salah cover on the wing, the England U21 international was brilliant.

Bradley, meanwhile, burst onto the scene in late 2023 following an injury to Alexander-Arnold and had a spectacular impact. An ankle injury and Alexander-Arnold's return eventually saw his game time decrease again towards the end of the term, but the 20-year-old finished the season as a fan favourite and with six assists to his name.

Quansah, like Bradley, proved one of the revelations of 23-24 and he was, for the most part, a very good partner to Van Dijk at the heart of the defence. An increasing number of mistakes, especially in possession, in the run-in, however, ultimately means that we have chosen Elliott as the Best Youngster. The attacking midfielder netted four times and recorded 11 assists.