The ECHO takes a look at some of the issues Arne Slot needs to resolve at Liverpool this coming summer after the head coach claimed the Reds “will be a different team next season” on Saturday
After boos were heard once more around Anfield following the final whistle of a Premier League match, Arne Slot was asked if he remains convinced he can win back the match-going support at Liverpool on Saturday afternoon.
A 1-1 draw with a Chelsea side who had lost their last six and scored just one goal was enough for jeers, following on from similarly disgruntled noises at the end of the games with Burnley and Tottenham Hotspur, which also ended with the same scoreline in January and March, respectively.
“Yeah, I do [remain convinced],” Slot said. “Not this season, by the way. This season they (fans) will have their opinion and it will not change.
“But if we can have the summer that we are planning to have I am 100% convinced we will be a different team next season than we are now. Different in terms of results, different in how things look.”
But just what does Slot need to resolve this summer to ensure those whose patience has snapped are able to buy into what the Dutchman is doing once more? The ECHO has taken a closer look at what might be on the agenda as a potentially defining summer for Slot as Liverpool‘s head coach nears.
READ MORE: Liverpool sent Jeremie Frimpong message as Dominik Szoboszlai transfer rumours addressed
Get the No.9 involved more
A feature of Slot’s play over the last two seasons has been how uninvolved generally the No.9 has been in his tactical framework.
The coach has tried several players in the role across the last 18 months or so with Diogo Jota, Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo, Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike all being tasked with leading the line at various points.
The late Jota scored the first goal of the Slot era in that 2-0 win at Ipswich Town in August 2024 and he was an important part of the squad that won the title last term, but Nunez’s particularly frenetic style was unsuited to an approach that demands patience under the current boss.
Nunez fared much better under previous Jurgen Klopp regime and by November of 2024, it was left-winger Diaz who was being deployed centrally on a consistent basis. It was a tactic that started spectacularly, with the Colombia striker scoring a hat-trick in a 4-0 demolition of Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League.
And while Diaz had a productive campaign, scoring a league-best 13 goals for the Reds, it eventually became a case of diminishing returns towards the back end of last year and the tweak of playing the now Bayern Munich man through the middle was never really viewed as a long-term solution anyway.
Ekitike and Isak were signed at an eye-watering cost of £204m to solve the centre-forward issue, but the latter’s fitness and injury issues have been well documented. It is hoped that next season, with the benefit of the World Cup and a good pre-season campaign, the £125m club-record purchase can show the form he displayed during his time at Newcastle.
Ekitike has been a bright spot of this season with 17 goals, putting him in line to be the Reds’ top scorer this term. But a ruptured Achilles last month means he is now facing up to a long-term recovery process.
In the meantime, Slot has to develop a way of playing that involves his main goalscorer more frequently. All too often, whoever it is left to feed off scraps. Gakpo had just a handful of touches in the first half against Chelsea and was largely anonymous. It needs addressing.
How to ‘replace’ Salah?
One of the ways of effectively getting the centre-forward involved more is having a different profile of right-sided attacker from next season.
Liverpool are of the belief that Mohamed Salah – top scorer in eight of his nine Liverpool seasons – is simply irreplaceable in the traditional sense.
The fact that the Egyptian forward is widely recognised as one of the club’s greatest ever players is proof enough of that and asked recently if getting the most out of club-record signing Isak was a consideration when deciding on a Salah successor, Slot said it was a factor.
“[Getting the most from Isak] is definitely part of thinking about the [Salah] replacement,” Slot said. “Because since I have been here – and it is the same at a lot of clubs – it is mainly a left footer on the right and a right footer on the left.
“I have seen Alex scoring also a lot from crosses which were played from the right, right footed, Trent Alexander-Arnold crosses, if you want to call them like that.
“So that is definitely part of how we are looking at things, but we try to sign the best possible available player who we can afford.
“Something else which also happens at certain clubs is: ‘OK, that is the best player in the world in that position, let’s try and get him.’
“That is not how we work, we try and sign the best possible player who is available for us.”
Liverpool are believed to have assessed the merits of RB Leipzig’s Yan Diomande after the 19-year-old’s breakout season in the Bundesliga.
The jet-heeled and two-footed Diomande has scored 12 goals and created eight assists during his campaign with Leipzig and a price tag of around €100m (£86m) has been bandied about for the teenager as a result.
Paris Saint-Germain’s Bradley Barcola is another player who is said to be under consideration. The Reds were linked with the PSG winger last summer before they broke the bank for Isak and Barcola has 10 goals and two assists from 27 Ligue 1 games this term.
With Desire Doue, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Ousmane Dembele providing exceptionally stern competition for a place in the European champions’ forward line, Barcola may be minded to consider his options.
He is represented by the Jorge Mendes agency Gestifute, who Liverpool have dealt with over several players in recent years including Fabinho, Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez.
Find a solution at right-back
The problem position has undoubtedly been at right-back this season for Arne Slot. As many as seven players have played there, including two midfielders in Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones and the inexperienced Calvin Ramsay.
The versatile Joe Gomez, summer signing Jeremie Frimpong and Academy graduate Conor Bradley have all been deployed there across the course of this troubled term too. Wataru Endo started there at Sunderland and suffered a serious ankle injury that ended his season in February.
Bradley is considered the first choice for the role but has been out since suffering a serious knee injury in January. It’s unclear at this stage when the Northern Ireland international will be ready to resume first-team training.
Frimpong has been in and out of the side due to a handful of muscle injuries but has been asked to play further forward of late. The Netherlands international is a versatile operator but it is perhaps concerning how the right-back issue continues to trouble Slot, despite the availability of the £29m summer signing from Bayer Leverkusen.
Liverpool tried to sign Slot’s former Feyenoord captain, Lutsharel Geertruida, from RB Leipzig in January but a deal for the on-loan Sunderland player proved too complicated. Denzel Dumfries, of Inter, was also part of behind-the-scenes talks, suggesting the head coach was keen to bolster his right-sided defensive options at the start of the year.
If Bradley’s convalescence is no nearer to an end then Liverpool must bring in an experienced and dependable option at right-back.
Add physicality
One of Liverpool’s biggest problems this season has been their inability to compete with the division’s more robust and physical sides.
Too often a soft underbelly has been exposed and their midfield, in particular, has lacked bite. Alexis Mac Allister has been way below the standard shown in his two full previous terms and Ryan Gravenberch looks a pale imitation of the Premier League’s young player of the year.
Dominik Szoboszlai has carried the fight but he has been a rare positive in the engine room this season. The combative Wataru Endo only started only one game – at right-back – and saw his season ended by a serious ankle issue in February.
Consequently, Liverpool have been bullied too often. Recent summers have tended to focus on the search for a more traditional defensive midfielder with Aurelien Tchouameni of Real Madrid wanted as far back as 2022. The following year saw Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia both choose Chelsea, before Martin Zubimendi opted to stay with Real Sociedad in the summer of 2024.
Last year looked as though there would be little needed for a tough-tackling midfielder given the excellent campaign of Gravenberch in a deeper position but there is an absence of battling qualities in the centre of the pitch.
Find a home for Florian Wirtz
Despite a tough maiden campaign on Merseyside, Florian Wirtz has shown enough quality in flashes to suggest he can be a big player at Anfield.
The Germany international hasn’t had the campaign he would have liked after his £116m transfer from Bayer Leverkusen but with seven goals and eight assists so far, evidence suggests those figures could rise sharply in a fully functioning side.
With more pace and physicality around him, Wirtz will flourish but Slot needs to find a home for the creative midfielder first. Too often he has been shunted out wide to accommodate another midfielder in the side, and that doesn’t appear to suit the No.7 in the more intense Premier League.
Developing a structure that allows Wirtz to see the ball in more advanced, central areas will be key to unlocking more chances for the forward players next season. It should form part of the thinking on the pre-season training pitches this summer.
More leaders
With Egypt captain Mohamed Salah and Scotland skipper Andy Robertson set to leave the club this month, Liverpool will need to fill the leadership void in the squad somehow.
Club captain Virgil van Dijk remains, of course, but he will need a new deputy as Robertson gets set to call time on his decorated career and Salah has often set the example behind the scenes with his dedication to his craft.
Alisson Becker, another quietly yet influential voice behind the scenes, could also leave with Juventus keen to take the Brazil international. That would create a massive hole in the committee of Liverpool’s leaders. So who steps up?
Ibrahima Konate has captained France previously and Dominik Szoboszlai, who wears the armband for Hungary, is another who could be considered to take on more responsibility in the dressing room. Alexis Mac Allister is another.
But do Liverpool need more experience in their ranks? The Reds are currently seventh for the average of their squad in the Premier League at 26.2 from the 24 players used.
That number will drop dramatically when Salah, 33, and Robertson, who recently turned 32, leave the club. Jeremy Jacquet, a £60m signing from Rennes, will be 21 by the time next season starts, while Giovanni Leoni won’t close out his teenage years until December.
Liverpool have proven in the past how important a more experienced player can be to a squad, having seen the success that followed after captures of Gary McAllister and more recently James Milner.
Times change in football but there’s always something to be said for players who have been there and done it.
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