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

What in regards to 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 ample backing.

It has been one yr since Jurgen Klopp made the dramatic resolution to step down from his place as Liverpool supervisor, sending frisson upon frisson of shock via the crimson 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 is not going to be realised. Federico Chiesa stays the one first-team participant to have adopted Slot into Liverpool’s coaching centre up to now, and the injury-prone ahead has solely performed seven occasions.

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

The gamers that could possibly 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 arduous towards renewals, we’re frankly in uncharted and regarding territory, February being one week away.

Relating to non-contract-related departure rumours, Joe Gomez, 28, could wrap up his time on Merseyside after coming close to joining Newcastle United final summer time. The versatile defender has played 240 times for Liverpool however is intrigued by the prospect of attempting his hand elsewhere.

Between the sticks, Caoimhin Kelleher’s departure feels all but 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 could possibly be shifting away, however these are agreeable gross sales. Nevertheless, a extra sinister shadow has lurked over Anfield.

Liverpool could possibly be in peril of dropping one other of their most prized property.

Liverpool might lose one other celebrity

According to Anfield Watch, Liverpool could possibly be in peril of dropping Ibrahima Konate this yr, with Paris Saint-Germain trying 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 as a consequence of damage however hailed for his “imperious” performances by The Athletic’s James Pearce.

The slow-boiling problem 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 cause 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 release 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 observe 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 underneath Slot’s wing this season, establishing a redoubtable rearguard that permits Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister to say their authority within the centre, in flip selling attacking high quality within the ultimate third.

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

As per Sofascore, Konate has gained 74% of his aerial battles this season. Van Dijk, in the meantime, has won 73% of his aerial duels. This may really feel like a pedantic comparability, but when something it exhibits 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 the most effective within the enterprise – if he isn’t already – even saying himself this week: “I simply wish to be higher than him someday!”

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

To lose this participant as he steps into his prime years could be a catastrophe for Slot’s mission. 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 towards Europe’s greatest outfits yr on yr. He simply must be backed.

Hughes’ foremost precedence in the meanwhile might be extending the offers of linchpins like Van Dijk and Salah, however Konate is Liverpool’s future and dropping him to a Champions League rival like PSG could be detrimental, to say the least.

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