Two Zinedine Zidane favorites have already been allowed to leave Liverpool
Zinedine Zidane praised a revered Liverpool trio ahead of Real Madrid's meeting with the Reds in 2021, but only one of the star players remains at the club today
Zinedine Zidane was the scourge of Liverpool in the Champions League on a couple of occasions during Jurgen Klopp's spell in charge of the Reds.
The legendary former France playmaker spent two spells in charge of Real Madrid between 2016 and 2018, and 2019 and 2021, and got the better of Liverpool in both spells.
Madrid beat Liverpool in the 2018 final, before knocking them out of the 2020-21 competition at the quarter-final stage with a 3-1 aggregate victory. It was ahead of that quarter-final that Zidane praised Liverpool's revered front three of Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane.
"Some might say their strength is their three forwards because they’re very good, and that’s true, but it’s a very solid team as a whole.
"We know how good their forwards are and how clinical they are, so we need to watch them, but we need to watch everything."
Of course, those comments came a few years ago so it is little surprise that the front three is no longer together at Liverpool, with Mane and Firmino having moved on in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
Firmino, Mane and Salah formed a formidable front line for a few years under Jurgen Klopp, with the trio dovetailing brilliantly as Liverpool won the Champions League and the Premier League in 2019 and 2020 respectively, while also reaching Champions League finals in 2018 and 2022.
Mane was the first to leave, joining Bayern Munich in 2022, where he stayed for just one year before linking up with Cristiano Ronaldo at Al-Nassr.
Firmino departed a year later after being reduced to a bit-part player following the arrival of Darwin Nunez; the Brazilian is now also plying his trade in Saudi Arabia.
The 34-year-old now plays for Al Sadd after originally moving to Saudi Arabia to play for Al-Ahli, where he spent two seasons.
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