Looking at Summer: Liverpool’s Attacking Needs
Liverpool’s exit out of the Champions League has brought up an uncomfortable question that’s lingered over this great season: what comes next for Liverpool’s attack?
Liverpool are top of the Premier League by some distance and could end questions related to the Premier League title race by getting to 86 points first, which would exceed the maximum point tally available to closest chasers, Arsenal, by 1 point. 5 wins and 1 draw, then, out of 9 remaining matches. In a few hours, Liverpool will also be facing off against Newcastle United in the final of the Carabao Cup.
Even allowing for the frustrating exit out of the Champions League this past week, it feels a touch sudden to think about the future and to consider Liverpool’s needs in terms of roster moves when the team is, by all accounts, flying high. But we’re really only about two months off from the end of the year and not much further from the opening of the transfer window. And given that the churn of elite-level football is really nonstop, it isn’t wholly out of place to at least think through a few things.
The most obvious place of need is, likely, at striker/center forward. With neither of Diogo Jota nor Darwin Nuñez able to stake a consistent claim to that spot - and after failed experiments running Luis Díaz and Cody Gakpo there - it’s clear Liverpool will need to shore up that position in the off-season.
The biggest wild card, of course, is the looming expiry of Mohamed Salah’s contract and whether or not the Reds will need to then turn their sights on potentially two major positions in the first team over the summer. I would expect that Liverpool’s big questions are mostly shaped by what happens with Mo’s contract. Still, it feels inevitable that the club will need to look for someone to play that central role in Arne Slot’s attack.
Names like Newcastle’s Alexander Isak have been floated about, and while a player of that caliber would likely be welcomed on Merseyside, they would also fetch the kind of massive outlay that FSG has generally been a bit shy of involving themselves in. And given the big swing and disappointment of the likes of Andy Carroll, you can’t quite blame them.
And given the lack of consistency in terms of production from the number 9 spot - whether due to unavailability caused by injury or being an odd fit in the system - it looks like whatever happens the rest of the way, Liverpool will likely be in the market for a new striker.
Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com
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