Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has had his say on Liverpool being interested in a transfer move for Bayer Leverkusen attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz— and Federico Chiesa starting a Premier League game for the first time against Brighton.
Wirtz is among the players admired ahead of what could be a big summer for Liverpool, in which Carragher has already urged Arne Slot to bring in as many as six new stars. But Carragher believes he must not get in the way of the progress of Dominik Szoboszlai.
“I’ve had this thing with Szoboszlai, I actually think he’s got the qualities for central midfield,” Carragher said on Sky Sports ahead of the Brighton game. “When you describe his energy, it’s more what he does off the ball rather than what he does on the ball, and Liverpool are getting linked with a guy from Bayer Leverkusen.
“What might be interesting is, let’s say for instance that deal got done, Szoboszlai’s energy is vitally important to Liverpool. I think, could you do with that energy in central midfield?”
Against Brighton, Szoboszlai appears to be set to play deeper in more of a box-to-box role. Harvey Elliott is starting as the number 10.
Chiesa, meanwhile, starts for the first time in the Premier League since he arrived in England from Juventus, having only previously played 41 minutes in the competition. But Carragher says nothing too much should be read into that.
“I think he’s just giving him a game,” the pundit said. “The supporters love him because he’s got a great chant, but he hasn’t really offered too much.
“People may say he hasn’t had too much of an opportunity. He’s had injury problems in the past, but it hasn’t really worked, and all I would say is the manager watches him train every single day. He hasn’t put him in, but he’s put him in now the title’s won.”
Slot has already had his say on transfers ahead of the summer after he was asked about them during his pre-match press conference on Friday.
“First of all, then you assume that we are going to bring in new players!” he said. “And I’ve said many times already that we, as a club, are very happy with the players we’ve got.
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“Part of it is our decision but in some situations players that haven’t played a lot are not looking forward to another season not playing a lot. So, there’s always an ongoing process and we have to make sure that we are prepared if we can strengthen the squad.
“This club has always done that, no matter if we have 19, 20, 21 or 22 players. If we feel we can strengthen the squad, we do so.
“But it’s difficult to strengthen this squad because there’s a reason why we won the league — because we have so many great players. It’s an ongoing process what we are talking about.
“I think this club has shown so many times in the past that they will make the right decisions, and we’ve made the right decision last season as well not to bring in a player at all — except for Federico Chiesa — and that worked out quite well or not. I think it did!”
