PSG want Liverpool monster & it’s not Salah or Van Dijk

What concerning the future? Liverpool might win the Premier League and Champions League this season, favourites in each esteemed competitions, however Arne Slot’s sharp tactical thoughts deserves enough backing.

It has been one yr since Jurgen Klopp made the dramatic determination to step down from his place as Liverpool supervisor, sending frisson upon frisson of shock by the pink half of Merseyside.

It felt like a calamity, with followers throughout the globe nursing an ache of their coronary heart. However Klopp knew. He knew that Liverpool’s elite and sustainable mannequin would endure.

However Slot must be backed, or else Anfield’s potential over these coming years merely won’t be realised. Federico Chiesa stays the one first-team participant to have adopted Slot into Liverpool’s coaching centre to this point, and the injury-prone ahead has solely performed seven instances.

Liverpool want signings. Slot must be backed. However there’s lots occurring behind the scenes at Liverpool, with a large number of various exits on the playing cards.

The gamers that may very well be leaving Liverpool

The apparent gamers: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah are all approaching the conclusion of their Liverpool contracts, and whereas FSG are working onerous towards renewals, we’re frankly in uncharted and regarding territory, February being one week away.

Concerning non-contract-related departure rumours, Joe Gomez, 28, might wrap up his time on Merseyside after coming near becoming a member of Newcastle United final summer time. The versatile defender has performed 240 instances for Liverpool however is intrigued by the prospect of making an attempt his hand elsewhere.

Between the sticks, Caoimhin Kelleher’s departure feels all however confirmed, for Liverpool have signed Giorgi Mamardashvili to jockey with Alisson for the primary spot, arriving this summer time after his mortgage with Valencia concludes.

Gamers like Kelleher and Gomez may very well be transferring away, however these are agreeable gross sales. Nonetheless, a extra sinister shadow has lurked over Anfield.

Liverpool may very well be at risk of shedding one other of their most prized property.

Liverpool might lose one other celebrity

In keeping with Anfield Watch, Liverpool may very well be at risk of shedding Ibrahima Konate this yr, with Paris Saint-Germain seeking to convey the France worldwide again to his homeland.

The 25-year-old centre-back has loved his best season in Liverpool colors, lacking the festive interval because of damage however hailed for his “imperious” performances by The Athletic’s James Pearce.

The slow-boiling difficulty is that Konate is within the penultimate yr of his £70k-per-week contract, the importance of which is overshadowed by the extra urgent aforementioned concern.

Anfield Watch stress that the Ligue 1 champions hope to ‘exploit’ the state of affairs this summer time. All of the extra motive for sporting director Richard Hughes to get the deal wrapped up with haste.

Promoting Ibrahima Konate could be a catastrophe

Liverpool signed Konate in 2021, Klopp bringing the French expertise over from RB Leipzig after activating his £36m launch clause.

Konate’s high quality has been clear for a very long time, however he is been dogged by accidents all through his Premier League profession and this has held him again.

See under. The hulking defender is on monitor to have his best marketing campaign in England from an appearance-accumulation standpoint, regardless that he is missed a month slap-bang within the centre of the marketing campaign.

He is come on leaps and bounds, with journalist Josh Williams even hailing him as a “monster at masking floor and in a single vs one conditions.”

He’s the proper foil to Van Dijk, permitting the supremely clever Dutchman to maximise his skill. Konate’s athleticism and, certainly, ground-covering experience, are basic elements of Liverpool’s success below Slot’s wing this season, establishing a redoubtable rearguard that enables Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister to claim their authority within the centre, in flip selling attacking high quality within the closing third.

The 6 foot 4 colossus has even began to outshine his skipper in some elements of the defensive sport – hitherto unimaginable that Van Dijk needs to be trumped in such an space.

As per Sofascore, Konate has received 74% of his aerial battles this season. Van Dijk, in the meantime, has received 73% of his aerial duels. This may really feel like a pedantic comparability, but when something it reveals how the Les Bleus star has absorbed the fruits of his accomplice’s performances over the previous a number of years to refine and develop his personal sport.

It makes a telling touch upon his starvation to be top-of-the-line within the enterprise – if he’s not already – even saying himself this week: “I simply need to be higher than him in the future!”

For now, Liverpool followers are simply glad to have each titans of their combine, bouncing off the opposite splendidly to make sure that title goals are very a lot tangible.

To lose this participant as he steps into his prime years could be a catastrophe for Slot’s undertaking. Liverpool may need their sights on silverware this time period however the brand new gaffer has proved that he has the mettle and nous to compete in opposition to Europe’s largest outfits yr on yr. He simply must be backed.

Hughes’ fundamental precedence in the intervening time will probably be extending the offers of linchpins like Van Dijk and Salah, however Konate is Liverpool’s future and shedding him to a Champions League rival like PSG could be detrimental, to say the least.