Liverpool has some big calls looming in the summer transfer market. While new additions are inevitable to bolster Arne Slot’s roster, some exits will be required to make room.
The Reds are going to win the Premier League this season, and so the bar is high for the standards to increase. But there are still a few areas of the pitch where big changes could be coming.
In attack, for instance, there are question marks over the likes of Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota. Federico Chiesa is happy at Anfield but isn’t playing much, and Luis Diaz is sporadically linked with a move elsewhere.
Liverpool cannot make too many changes in one summer and Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk still need to be tied down to new contracts, but there could be a fair bit of movement in the market when the summer arrives. Sporting director Richard Hughes is set to be busy.
Nunez will, by the end of the campaign, have been a Liverpool player for three full seasons. The Uruguayan is yet to properly convince, though, and has not featured as much under Arne Slot. An exit could suit both parties if the right deal is placed on the table.
Jota scored against Everton and looked much better in that game than he has for a long time, but the Portugal striker has been injured for spells this season and those setbacks have always held him back. His consistency issues are as much in fitness as form but being sidelined has disrupted his campaign once again.
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Diaz, meanwhile, according to Fabrizio Romano, has interest from various Saudi Arabian clubs. Manchester City was supposedly keen on the Colombian last summer and Barcelona has often been touted as a possible destination for him, but it remains to be seen which interest will be firmed up as Diaz enters the final couple of years of his existing contract.
Now 28, Diaz has 14 goals and eight assists in 44 games so far under Slot. Liverpool also has Cody Gakpo to play on the left flank, however, and tried to sign Anthony Gordon from Newcastle United last summer.
Liverpool.com says: Diaz started very well this season and looked to have moved to the next level in terms of his output in front of goal. Since then, though, his impact in the final third has waned. He has been lively in recent games with Everton and Fulham but there is still improvement needed in front of goal. He has been played as a number nine a lot, too, which doesn’t suit his game.
