LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 11: (THE SUN OUT, THE SUN ON SUNDAY OUT) Sadio Mane of Liverpool celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the Premier League match between Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield on February 11, 2017 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Liverpool finished fourth in the Premier League in 2016-17, but what grade do they get for their overall performance?

The 2016-17 campaign was a pleasing one for Liverpool overall. In recent years they’ve performed at either boom or bust levels. This season they finished with a points tally in the 70s for only the second time in the past 20 years. They’ve had four in the 80s and four in the 50s in that time, illustrating how up and down the last two decades have been.

Reds fans were certainly dreaming of a better finish in the first half of this season, though. Liverpool put 43 points on the board in the first 19 matches of 2016-17, the most they’ve managed in the first half of a season in the Premier League era.

They weren’t grinding out results either. Jurgen Klopp’s men played some sublime soccer, scoring at least four goals in six league matches by the halfway stage. Liverpool have only scored four-or-more Premier League goals more times in 2013-14, when Luis Suarez lead their title charge in explosive style.

But in this campaign, the wheels fell off in January as star man Sadio Mane departed for the African Cup of Nations. Other key players such as Phillipe Coutinho and Joel Matip were returning from injuries, and Liverpool’s depleted squad failed to win any of their first five league games in 2017.

This didn’t prove catastrophic in terms of finishing in the Champions League qualification spots, which was their primary aim at the start of the campaign. It certainly torpedoed any hopes they had of competing for the title, though, and left fans dreaming of what might have been.

The manager

Klopp can be reasonably satisfied with his performance. He certainly oversaw the Reds’ best summer transfer business in quite some time, but he also saw the second January of his Liverpool tenure pass without squad investment. He may have felt that the right players were not available, but the slump in the results since then has left fans wondering if some fresh blood may have kept Liverpool in the title hunt.

Reds fans have generally been happy with Klopp’s initial choice of starting XI and tactics. The main other gripe this season has been with his use of substitutes.

In his first season, Klopp only failed to use all three of his available substitutions once in the league. He did so 10 times in 2016-17, and while it would be wrong to suggest direct causation, the Reds only won three of those games.

The German was also criticized by fans for making changes from the bench too late in matches. Only one Premier League manager who saw out the whole season gave his subs less time on the pitch. Once injuries started to bite at the turn of the year, the lack of new incoming talent left Klopp with few options from the bench that he was happy to employ.

But in his first full season in charge Klopp has steered the Reds to their second best league campaign of the last eight, so it has been a definite step in the right direction overall.

The players

The club’s player of the season was Mane, and deservedly so. He scored or assisted a goal every 123 minutes, and his omission from the PFA’s player of the year shortlist was baffling to say the least.

He wasn’t the only new boy to do well either, even if he was the clear star. Matip bought a much needed degree of stability to the Liverpool back line, and the team conceded under a goal per league game on average when he played whole matches. Gini Wijnaldum still hasn’t scored an away Premier League goal in his two seasons in England, but he did at least end the season as the Reds’ top provider of assists.

Leaving aside the new boys, both Coutinho and Roberto Firmino had good seasons overall. Both suffered dips after starting the campaign on fire though. The former suffered a bad mid-season injury which took time to recover from, and the latter is often at his best when an on-form Coutinho is linking up with him.

At the other end of the scale, Loris Karius was expected to make the goalkeeper position his own. Costly mistakes against Bournemouth and West Ham in successive games saw Simon Mignolet replace him for the rest of the campaign. The 23-year-old has time on his side though, and will look to come back stronger in 2017-18.

The other main disappointment was Daniel Sturridge. Not for his performance on the pitch; he showed at West Ham at the end of the season just what he offers. His lack of availability to the squad has been a constant issue during his time at Anfield, which may come to an end this summer.

Grade: B