Arne Slot will have learned plenty about his Liverpool roster this season. That was one of the reasons that the Reds didn’t do much business in the transfer market last summer — to ensure he could run the rule over the players he already had first.
By now, he will have a very good idea of what is required. And with Liverpool likely to be relatively active in the market come the summer, there are some obvious areas that need to be improved — one of which was evident against Newcastle United this weekend.
Diogo Jota really struggled at Wembley and he hasn’t been in form for a while now, with his campaign having been disrupted by injury again. Fellow number nine Darwin Nunez came off the bench and made little impact, not for the first time in recent weeks.
Luis Diaz has played there this season out of necessity, but he is a winger, and Cody Gakpo has been used almost exclusively out wide by Slot so far. There has been no real stand-out option that has staked a proper claim.
With that in mind, there are going to be plenty of strikers linked ahead of the summer. Alexander Isak has been mentioned as one who would appeal and last week, Julian Alvarez’s agent confirmed there was interest from Liverpool last year.
The South American, who has scored 23 goals this season to date, left Manchester City in search of more regular game time and has impressed at the Wanda Metropolitano. And he has really delighted his manager, Diego Simeone, with his relentless nature married up with his goalscoring.
(Image: Diego Souto/Getty Images)
“When we were thinking about [signing] Julian, this is what we got excited about,” Simeone told the Spanish television channel Movistar in January after he netted a brace against Bayer Leverkusen. “He’s got incredible experience. He’s a player with a present and an even better future.
“Let’s hope we can help him as a team, and he can keep having the humility he has to be able to keep running, working, and fighting for everything because I have no doubt that as the years go by, it will leave him in a special place at this club.”
Liverpool.com says: Pressing, energy and goals galore? Yes please. Alvarez is a sensational striker but given Atletico paid around $107M (£82M/€98M) to sign him last summer, he would not come cheap. Manchester City was never likely to have sold him directly to Liverpool so doing that deal last year would have been even harder.
