Liverpool is already the best team in England. The Reds have won the Premier League and currently have a 15-point lead at the top. And yet, Arne Slot will want to get even better when the 2025/26 campaign kicks off.
It sounds strange to say it given the achievements of the last few months, but Liverpool could be substantially better next season compared to this one. There are some obvious areas of the pitch — left-back and number nine, for instance — where it should be possible to find a significant upgrade.
And Slot might already have faced the team that his Liverpool side could most closely resemble next season when he looks to unleash the 2.0 version after what could become a busy summer.
With Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk tied down to new deals, that is two positions that won’t need looking at right now. But across the field, Liverpool can get even better — with PSG an ideal template.
Luis Enrique has redefined what the Ligue 1 is all about since he took charge at the Parc des Princes. Once the team that couldn’t make a frontline of Neymar, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe work, it is now in the Champions League final having knocked Liverpool (and Aston Villa and Arsenal) out on the way.
“It was the best game of football I have ever been involved in,” Slot said on Amazon Prime after his side had been knocked out of the Champions League on penalties by PSG. The right side went through on the balance of the tie.
Next season, as well as retaining its league crown, Liverpool will want to do better in Europe. And some new additions are the best way of making sure that happens.
(Image: Ralf Ibing – firo sportphoto/Getty Images)
Jeremie Frimpong, various outlets have suggested, is closing in on becoming Liverpool’s first signing of the summer. The Times has reported that the triggering of his $39 million (£30 million) release clause — a modest amount in the current climate — will soon take place.
Alongside Conor Bradley, that seems like a good plan to replace the departing Trent Alexander-Arnold. And just last week, Slot compared Bradley to the PSG star Achraf Hakimi. “Conor is in his own league when it comes to running a lot,” the Liverpool boss said.
“Comparable maybe with Hakimi, he is everywhere during the game. But Hakimi is 26, I think. He is much more used to doing this every single week.”
On the opposite flank, $60 million (£45 million) rated Milos Kerkez has been widely reported as someone Liverpool is considering as an upgrade at left-back. Andy Robertson doesn’t have the energy and speed he once did, but the 21-year-old Hungarian has it in spades.
(Image: Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
If Kerkez and Frimpong were to line up at full-back for Liverpool next season, there would be more than a shade of Nuno Mendes and Hakimi about that set-up. Inverted defenders have been a recent trend in soccer, but flying full-backs like PSG has used this season could be on the way back.
Thankfully, center-backs Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate are as good as anyone at defending big spaces when they are left exposed.
In midfield, Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch have the kind of technical ability to perform in a similar way to the likes of Fabian Ruiz, Vitinha and Joao Neves at PSG. Dominik Szoboszlai isn’t bad on the ball either, and his energy and running power would be vital in a system where the full-backs fly forward at will.
Learn more
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Bradley Barcola and Ousmane Dembele started for PSG at Anfield in March, with Desire Doue coming off the bench. None of those attacking players are conventional number nines, but they occupy spaces and are all elite pressers capable of scoring and creating.
While Liverpool.com reported this week that Bayern Munich is the favorite to sign Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen, imagine for a second that the Reds did pull off a deal for the German international, who they admire. Wirtz as a false nine, with Szoboszlai behind him and Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah on either flank, would be a mouthwatering prospect.
PSG was the only team this season to really put Liverpool in its place (in the Paris game, rather than the one on Merseyside). Next season, it would be exciting if Slot could set his side up in a similar way. He could do just that with Frimpong, Kerkez and Wirtz or equivalent signings.
