‘Be happy again’: Coach says his former player must leave Liverpool

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Xherdan Shaqiri must depart Premier League champions Liverpool after falling down Jurgen Klopp’s Anfield pecking order, former Switzerland coach Ottmar Hitzfeld has told Blick.

If the former Bayern Munich and Inter Milan winger was struggling for game time last season, things are not going to get any easier on the red half of Merseyside.

Since lifting the English league title for the first time in 30 years, Liverpool have reinforced their already star-studded attack with Wolves’ Iberian speed machine Diogo Jota.

Takumi Minamino, meanwhile, has made an impressive start to his first full season in the famous red shirt, suggesting that he is indeed capable of easing the burden on the brilliant Bobby Firmino in that unique false nine role.

So the writing is most certainly on the wall for Shaqiri.

“It doesn’t get any easier for him. That Shaqiri wasn’t even on the line-up is a clear sign from the coach (Klopp),” Hitzfeld says after his former talisman was left out of the matchday squad for Monday’s 3-1 triumph over Arsenal.

“Xherdan should move to a club where he plays regularly. He must be happy again, we all want to see happy Xherdan happy again. A change would be good for everyone around him and for his fans.

“A mid-table Premier League club would be a good step, or a move to Bundesliga with a club like Gladbach, Leverkusen or Wolfsburg.”

Shaqiri, who has started just two Premier League games since the start of 2019/20, offered a timely reminder of his quality with a stunning free-kick in a 7-2 Carabao Cup thrashing of Lincoln City last week.

“The set-pieces were outstanding – the free-kick he scored with, what a goal that was!,” Klopp told Goal.

“There is no doubt about Shaq’s quality, there was never [any doubt] and in the moment everything looks really, really good, it looks promising and we will see.”