The worst thing Arne Slot could have tried to do was to be Jurgen Klopp 2.0. Instead, he has adopted his own approach to managing Liverpool — and the differences extend into the transfer market.
While Klopp was never exactly averse to using the transfer window to find solutions, he would also publicly back his existing group to the hilt at every possible turn. For his part, Slot has no issue being a little more direct.
He was content to work with what he had in his first summer, barring an opportunistic move for Federico Chiesa. That continuity worked very well, leading to a league title — but before the Premier League trophy has even been placed in Virgil van Dijk’s hands, Slot has warned his players that there will be even more competition for places next season.
That attitude has been welcomed, not least by Van Dijk himself. He has spoken multiple times about his excitement over “ambitious” plans for the summer.
It wouldn’t be a surprise to learn that Mohamed Salah was grateful for Slot’s direct appraisal of the club’s transfer plans too, when deciding whether to commit his future to Anfield. While Klopp’s approach was certainly not wrong, and helped to create the unity without which none of his success would have been possible, this new way of doing things is a more obvious show of ambition.
“If I look at the way we think about next season and our squad, these are things that are on my mind. I think we can find one or two extra weapons that this team doesn’t have,” Slot declared recently.
“That is what we are trying to achieve. That will make us only stronger.”
Nor is Liverpool hanging around. A deal for Jeremie Frimpong is imminent, while links to Milos Kerkez are heating up as well.
Of course, they could theoretically be the “one or two weapons” to whom Slot was referring. But on the whole, it seems unlikely that Liverpool will stop at freshening up its full-back departments.
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For one thing, neither of those players would quite account for what Trent Alexander-Arnold is taking away. Frimpong and Kerkez will bomb up and down for days, and put in wicked deliveries to boot, but neither will pull the strings in the same way as the departing vice-captain.
That points to a need for a new, highly creative midfielder. But an “extra weapon” there would have to be someone really special to displace the trio that have done so well this season.
Florian Wirtz fits that bill. He is a supreme talent, and bringing him to Liverpool would be the greatest show of transfer ambition in a generation.
That’s not to say a move will happen. But he’s one of the few who meets Slot’s requirements, and it appears that Liverpool’s interest is genuine.
A new striker could also still be on the agenda. In this case, it’s a little easier to meet Slot’s criteria — the bar, so to speak, is Darwin Nunez.
Of course, anyone replacing the Uruguayan would also need to compete with Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota for a starting berth. But with Nunez having failed to even offer much impact from the bench this season, a couple of notable exceptions aside, there are plenty of strikers who would represent an extra weapon in that regard.
Alexander Isak is surely a non-starter, even for this new, aggressive version of Liverpool we are currently witnessing. Julian Alvarez might just be on the other side of the plausibility line, and that would be an incredible addition.
Then there is Benjamin Sesko, who is probably another step closer toward the realistic category. But there is a reason that he is also coveted by top teams across Europe, and would definitely add something to the Liverpool attack.
Ultimately, any one of Wirtz, Isak, Sesko and Alvarez — in addition to Frimpong and Kerkez — would make for an exciting summer. Slot has set transfer expectations high, gearing up for the first big shake up in the post-Klopp era, but there are definitely players out there who fit the bill.
