Liverpool's World Cup Contingent: Winners and Questions

After 104 games, a string of flashpoints and a final that felt more spiteful than spectacular, the World Cup has finally shut its doors. Spain climbed out of the chaos with the trophy, Argentina sank into their own cynicism, and somewhere in the middle of it all, Liverpool’s eight representatives lived very different stories.

Some came home with medals. Some came home with questions. All of them now point back towards Anfield and the start of the Andoni Iraola era.

Victor Munoz – N/A

Spain were still wondering how they hadn’t scored against Cape Verde when the news dropped: Liverpool had triggered Victor Munoz’s £34.5million release clause at Osasuna. The first signing of the Iraola reign announced himself not with a performance, but with a headline.

Then nothing.

An injury struck, games passed, and as Spain marched to the title, Munoz never played a single minute. Not one. He still ended up a World Cup winner, only the sixth serving Liverpool player to do it after Roger Hunt, Ian Callaghan, Gerry Byrne, Fernando Torres and Pepe Reina.

No evidence yet of what he’ll bring on the pitch. But he arrives at Anfield with a medal around his neck and the weight of curiosity on his shoulders.

Alexis Mac Allister – 7

Alexis Mac Allister’s World Cup ended with a whimper in a final where Argentina shrank on the biggest stage. He was part of that collective drop-off. Yet his tournament as a whole told a very different story.

The midfielder played every minute bar the dead rubber against Jordan, with Argentina already safely through as group winners. From a more advanced role, he threaded the pass that created a goal against Cape Verde, then stepped up himself to score the opener in the quarter-final win over Switzerland.

He dragged Argentina back from the brink against England, knitting attacks together and showing a calm that others around him lacked. Across eight games, he picked up only one yellow card – a remarkable level of control for a player whose combative edge usually draws the referee’s eye far more often.

Liverpool will want that version of Mac Allister – front-foot, inventive, disciplined – to walk straight into pre-season.

Alisson Becker – 7

Alisson returned from injury to find a Brazil side that looked nothing like the vintage teams whose shirts they wore. The problems were in front of him, not behind.

He did what he always does: set his feet, read the danger, make the difficult look routine. There was little he could do about Erling Haaland’s two ruthless finishes in the defeat to Norway that ended Brazil’s run. Across the tournament he reminded everyone why, when fit, he still belongs in any conversation about the world’s best goalkeepers.

For Liverpool, the key now is simple. Keep him on the pitch.

Alexander Isak – 6

Alexander Isak’s World Cup minutes will not have gone unnoticed on Merseyside. Three 90-minute outings in four games for Sweden, after managing none for Liverpool during the season, is the kind of detail that raises eyebrows.

He opened with a flourish. A goal and two assists against a woeful Tunisia showcased his movement, touch and eye for a final pass. He added another assist in the heavy win over Holland, but from there his influence faded. Each game felt a little lighter, the spark a little dimmer, as Sweden’s campaign lost its edge.

The talent is obvious. The question remains the same as at Anfield: can he sustain it when it matters most?

Cody Gakpo – 8

Cody Gakpo used this World Cup to breathe again.

Freed from a difficult, often scrutinised season at Liverpool, he looked like a different player in orange. Stationed on the left flank for Holland, he played with sharpness and conviction, especially in the standout win over Sweden, where he scored twice and set up another. He attacked defenders, carried the ball with purpose and finished with authority.

Then came a very different kind of moment. In the round of 32 defeat to Morocco, he scored shortly after the devastating news of the loss of his unborn son. It was a goal laced with emotion, a reminder that footballers carry far more than tactics and expectation onto the pitch.

Gakpo returns to Liverpool not just revitalised, but hardened by what he has lived through this summer.

Virgil van Dijk – 7

Virgil van Dijk’s World Cup existed in two parallel worlds.

On the pitch, the Holland captain delivered solid, often commanding displays in a side built to attack rather than protect. He scored in the entertaining draw with Japan and set up a goal against Tunisia, contributing at both ends while trying to marshal a defence that was frequently left exposed.

Off the pitch, the noise never stopped. Certain voices in his homeland continued to criticise him, as they have for years, rarely warming to a player whose standards remain higher than most. Holland conceded in all four of their games, and in a set-up that left the back line vulnerable, the collective shortcomings were pinned too easily on the most visible figure.

Van Dijk heads back to Anfield with another reminder that the margin for error, for him, is always thinner than for others.

Ryan Gravenberch – 7

Ryan Gravenberch’s World Cup offered a glimpse of the midfielder Liverpool thought they were signing – and the one they’re still trying to unlock.

Used in a more advanced role for Holland than he usually occupies at club level, he started the tournament impressively. Two clever assists against Japan highlighted his ability to find space and slide passes through tight gaps, his athleticism and vision finally aligned.

Then the dial turned. Pushed back into a more defensive position in the defeat to Morocco, he saw the game change around him. He was substituted before Holland conceded the late equaliser that dragged the tie to penalties, yet the shift in his role had already dulled his influence.

Which version will Iraola trust: the progressive creator, or the deeper controller?

Florian Wirtz – 6

The numbers flatter Florian Wirtz. Three assists in four games for Germany, mostly from a starting position off the left, suggest a playmaker ticking along nicely in a misfiring team.

Watch closer and a different picture emerges. The quality is undeniable – quick feet, sharp angles, an eye for the killer ball – but there was a lingering feeling he left something out there. Germany’s campaign never truly caught fire, and Wirtz too often drifted with it rather than seizing it.

When their World Cup ended in controversy against Paraguay on penalties, he was already off the pitch. Absent at the decisive moment, just as he had been on the margins for too much of the tournament.

Now he, like the rest of Liverpool’s World Cup contingent, returns to a club about to change direction under a new manager. Some arrive as champions, some as nearly-men, some with points to prove. The real judgments start when the US tour kicks off and the World Cup glow fades under the harsher lights of Sunderland, Leeds United and Wrexham.