By Matt Ladson, ThisIsAnfield.com
Arne Slot opted to go away the Italian, who has performed simply 33 minutes within the Premier League this season, at dwelling in favour of bringing Trent Alexander-Arnold again into the matchday squad. It meant the 2 forwards chosen for the bench had been the goal-shy Darwin Núñez and Diogo Jota.
Jota now has one objective in his final 14 appearances, whereas Núñez has one in his final 15. A winger, Luis Díaz, was chosen to guide the assault from kick off. Jota got here on for the final half an hour and missed three massive possibilities and put all 4 of his photographs vast.
Slot has insisted that Chiesa is in competitors with Mohamed Salah, at all times stating that the 27-year-old is the backup to the 32-goal Egyptian. However certainly Chiesa may have been given a chance in a central function, given the possibilities Díaz, Jota and Núñez have been afforded and didn’t take all through the season.
It can, it appears, stay a thriller why Slot doesn’t fancy the previous Juventus man, who’s now extensively anticipated to depart Anfield inside 12 months of his £12 million arrival final summer season. Supporters could liken his time equally to that of Jari Litmanen, a proficient participant that Gerard Houllier didn’t appear to fancy. Generally that occurs.
Liverpool’s attacking rebuild – 4 out, two keep?
It’s fairly weird that Liverpool – a staff which have scored 112 targets in all competitions – are on the verge of sealing their twentieth title and but of their 5 ahead choices solely two – Salah and Cody Gakpo – look positive to be on the membership subsequent season.
Chiesa will certainly depart, Núñez definitely will, Jota and Díaz are more likely to be offloaded if the correct worth arrives for them. Each Díaz and Jota are 28 and with two years left on their present contracts, now can be the time to promote to maximise worth and herald youthful replacements.
Liverpool checked out Anthony Gordon final summer season, whereas hyperlinks to forwards and vast gamers have been plentiful in current weeks. Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike, Julián Alvarez, Liam Delap, Jonathan David, Benjamin Šeško and Matheus Cunha are amongst these linked both strongly or extra tenuously.
Of these, Isak, with 21 targets and 6 assists for Newcastle within the Premier League this season, would little doubt be the best new No.9 for Liverpool – however the worth can be extraordinarily prohibitive, even when Newcastle had been keen to promote, which they’re hardly more likely to be.
Isak ranks extremely in all attacking percentiles, along with his 0.64 anticipated targets on track (89 percentile) considerably larger than Jota’s 0.46 (52 percentile). Núñez’s is down at 0.34 (28 percentile).
Ekitike, three years youthful than Isak, matches up equally to the Newcastle man in a number of metrics, however the price ticket being reported appears extraordinarily excessive. Liverpool shall be eager to not get stung as they did with Núñez. Ekitike is underperforming his anticipated targets, too.
One participant who’s outperforming their anticipated targets is Alvarez, and the previous Man Metropolis man’s agent Fernando Hidalgo mentioned this earlier this 12 months: “I verify that Liverpool had been considering Julián final summer season.”
The 25-year-old has a number of qualities that Liverpool would really like. He’s confirmed within the Premier League, he’s at a chief age (25) however with extra room for improvement, has performed within the Champions League beneath Pep Guardiola and Diego Simeone, is considerably versatile capable of play centrally or from the left, and is a participant whose model would swimsuit Slot’s.
Alvarez has a powerful 26 targets and 5 assists in all competitions this season. He additionally ranks nicely for likelihood creation, dribbles, and in his defensive facet of the sport with a excessive sort out price, recoveries and possession received within the remaining third.
The previous River Plate teen joined Atlético from Metropolis for a reported £82 million and signed a six-year deal, so any such transfer wouldn’t be easy, however with related costs now claimed for Ekitike it might arguably be a better use of the cash to go for the Argentine.
A summer season of change beckons at Anfield, particularly within the Reds’ assault; will probably be attention-grabbing to see how they carry out as soon as Slot has new gamers that he has had an enter in signing.
(Photos from IMAGO)
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