That squad has been poorly mismanaged in the long term and now needs serious work. I have no idea why they praise Michael Edwards as he’s created a time bomb for the next manager.
Can left on a free, Wijnaldum will leave on a free, Lallana left on a free, Milner will retire soon. That’s seriously bad practice to let 4 players you actually want to keep and have value walk out for nothing. They’re left with Henderson (who will now have problems as you’ve said), Thiago (injury prone and no resale value), Keita (terrible buy, plummeted in value, never fit), Curtis Jones (not as good as those leaving), and Fabinho (one of their few prime assets). Klopp will be going back to FSG asking for more money in the summer for two extra midfielders or he risks once again burning out the ones he does have. He’ll be essentially hoping that Fabinho Thiago Keita stay fit and play every game because he’ll only have one or two sub par options to rotate them with.
Upfront is a disaster. Three players on mega contracts all declining, all who either want a move or want a new even bigger contract. All not as good as they were.
In defence they have two good fullbacks but what state will any of those centrebacks come back in? Klopp will again be wanting more money.
Compare that to City who have gradually transferred out even good players for fees (Boateng, Sane, Negredo, Navas, Dzeko Otamendi Angelino etc. and refreshed the squad with younger players Bernardo Stones Dias, Laporte, Sterling Foden.
Even looking at our squad, whilst it doesn’t hVe the same quality right now the long term prospects are better. DCL Richalrison are two of the best striking prospects in the league and could demand a huge fee. Holgate Godfrey Branthwaite are all young at the back. It’s only really midfield where we have predominately older players that may need replacing in the near future.
Edwards is a funny one, and there is a bit of a cult around Edwards for them (in te same way we had one around Brands for a period, though it's more balanced now). My view is you DOF (and I appreciate they take different titles" job is to support the manager. In football now, they are increasingly viewed as the main person. The reality is, recruitment stands or falls on the manager.
Rodgers people essentially named Edwards as a major problem. He was seen as akin to Steve Walsh here, and had presided over the summer debacled where they sold Suarez for 60m, and spent 60m on Balotelli, Lambert & Benteke to replace him. It was a disatser. I think they signed Lallana and Lovren that summer who both initially flopped too. They ended up spending 200m to finish 8th or something,
The "independant variable" for Edwards was Klopp. Klopp actually made a lot of these players better. And again in truth, Klopp insisting they broke with his mathematical model to pay more for Alisson & VVD was key. Before they arrived they were a 4th place team, Those 2 world class players took them to being a title winning/challenging team. They were the key missing ingredient and it was Klopp as opposed to Edwards who insisted on both.
In honesty, his record on other players is actually quite patchy. Salah is probably his one big success (but again I'd say a lot of that is Klopp maximising him, I'm not sure he's world class in any other team). Keita, Lallana, Lovren, Chamberalin, Clyne, Minamino, Origi, Karius, Mignolet, Shaqiri, Can, Lambert, Balotelli, Borini, Benteke have completely flopped, even working within a preferential a hugely successful team. There's probaly 300m+ spent there (plus huge wages). All of them are Edwards numbers signings. I mean if you go back further you have the likes of Carroll et al where money was completely wasted.
In terms of squad management, it's been poor yes, but I think they have allowed Klopp too much autonoamy. He has obviously not wanted to break up his team, and Edwards has probably not been strong enough to insist on it. It's partly why I think, especilly give Klopp's behaviour, they will want a yes man in next who will allow for more committee type signings. Youd imagine FSG retrench into what they know.
They have curious few assetts at the 26 and under point. Arnold is probably the one who stands out, but his value will have tumbled this ear during what has been a pretty awful season for him. The rest are either older, or have serious injuries they are recovering from. I mean they go on about Jota, but they paid £45m he also has had a nasty injury, and has scored 5 league goals. They go on like he's Maradona but he won't score 10 league goals this season (which for a forward is a pretty poor return for £45m). Even Fabinho who I like, will be 28 when the new season has begun and has started to pick up lots of injuries, I'm really not convinced anyone gives them anywhere near the £45m they paid for him with those injuries piling up.
You can see the warning signs on the horizon, before you put the kind of treble of additional problems they hav being 1- prices plummeting for players in their late 20s and above, 2- the financial damage of covid and 3- potentially no CL. All of those points will exacerbate some pretty bad squad management.
So yes I struggle a bit with the cult of Edwards they have. He's made some really interesting buys, but I do think a lot of them was when a good manager was having a great time of it and everything was going in their favour. When you actuslly analyse the recruitment, it's a bit more up and down than just the good 2-3 years under Klopp.
