Liverpool have seen some wonderful players leave and enjoy their peaks as footballers elsewhere over the years.

While the Reds deal with the ongoing contract situations of Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah, it can be tempting to wheel out the likes of Philippe Coutinho as examples of players who left Anfield and found the going tough.

However, the truth is that for every Philippe Coutinho, there is a Luis Suarez.

Suarez left for the same club, Barcelona, and went on to be arguably one of the greatest strikers of all time after departing Liverpool.

A similar story befell Xabi Alonso.

While an excellent player during his years at Anfield, Alonso's peak as a footballer came once he joined Real Madrid.

From there, the Spaniard then enjoyed something of an Indian Summer to his career with a move to Bayern Munich.

While at Bayern Alonso played alongside Robert Lewandowski, who has now given a nod to just how good the former Liverpool man was.

Throughout his career, Lewandowski has played with some of the greatest players of a generation.

MORE LIVERPOOL STORIESSo, when Rio Ferdinand asked the 36-year-old to pick his all-time five a side team based on players he shared a dressing room with, it was bound to be interesting.

Of course, Lewandowski played with another former Liverpool player - Thiago Alcantara - for many years at Bayern.

But, having picked Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben up front and Jerome Boateng and David Alaba at the back, it was Alonso who Lewandowski chose to anchor the midfield.

Alonso beat away competition from Bastian Schweinsteiger and Thiago himself to claim a spot in Lewandowski's dream team.

"Bastian Schweinsteiger was so.

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but I have Xabi Alonso!" said the striker.

"Lahm, Xabi Alonso, Schweinsteiger.

Ah, Thiago Alcantara! Argh.

"Xabi Alonso was that good This is really quite a feather in Alonso's cap.

Lewandowski has played with plenty of amazing midfielders during his career.

He could have picked any of them.

At times, it is perhaps exaggerated how good Alonso was for Liverpool, with the reality being that the World Cup winner had two top seasons, one good one and another two blighted by injury.

Nevertheless, his status as a great of world football should not be underestimated.

Alonso admitted to still being a Liverpool fan when visiting Anfield recently with Bayer Leverkusen.

To have such a big, big name across Europe so associated with the Reds is a nice thing to have.

He'll surely be back one day.

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