Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard has urged the Reds to have a “big summer” in the transfer market to ensure they can compete on all fronts under Arne Slot when the new campaign begins.
In Slot’s debut season, Liverpool secured the Premier League title with four games to spare. But it was beaten by PSG in the Champions League and couldn’t bring home a domestic trophy, losing the Carabao Cup final to Newcastle United at Wembley.
With a year to bed himself into his new surroundings, though, Slot is now ready to kick on again. The Dutchman, alongside sporting director Richard Hughes, has been planning for what comes next for some time.
Bayer Leverkusen wing-back Jeremie Frimpong appears set to arrive as a replacement for Trent Alexander-Arnold while a deal was done last summer for Valencia goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili. More moves are expected too.
“How are they going to make the squad capable of dominating? Because it’s not easy,” Gerrard told a special edition of The Reds Roundtable, posted on the club’s YouTube channel.
Gerrard, Rafa Benitez and Sami Hyypia reminisced about the 20th anniversary of their 2005 Champions League victory. But the focus was also on the current team, with the Premier League title celebrations continuing.
(Image: Carl Recine/Getty Images)
“Everyone else is going to strengthen. Look at PSG, the level they have gone to so quickly,” Gerrard continued.
“[It’s a] big summer to make sure we are ready to compete for everything again next year. That’s Liverpool Football Club; it’s all about what’s in the pipeline.”
Bournemouth left-back Milos Kerkez and Bayer Leverkusen attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz are also thought to be on the radar of Liverpool transfer chiefs. But the exact summer plan is yet to become clear.
“As we all know, we went out of the cup in Plymouth, and against PSV (in the Champions League’s league phase) we lost, which wasn’t an important game anymore,” Slot said last week.
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“And I think I made six substitutions against Paris Saint-Germain, where the extra time wasn’t our best period of the game.
“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.”
Liverpool.com says: Given how good the Reds are already, it would be really exciting to add a couple of extra top-class players to the starting XI. More depth is needed to compete on multiple fronts, but Liverpool would have gone further in Europe this time around had it not drawn arguably the best team in the competition in the first knockout round.
