Slot driving Liverpool deal for £60m “game-changer”

Liverpool have but to formally raise the 2024/25 Premier League trophy however already sporting director Richard Hughes is taking a look at methods to enhance Arne Slot’s facet.

There is no query that the Merseysiders have placed on a season-long clinic, deserving, runaway winners. Nevertheless, it is also true that the likes of Arsenal and dethroned Manchester Metropolis will likely be annoyed with their respective top-flight campaigns and will likely be decided to return again stronger subsequent 12 months.

Nevertheless, FSG and Anfield’s senior figures will be sure you take consolation within the method of their triumph: profitable the Premier League after bringing solely Federico Chiesa into the primary staff – and he is but to even begin a league fixture.

The mastery behind Slot’s genius has been in his delicate and vital tactical tweaks to Jurgen Klopp’s system, additionally shaping present squad gamers into superstars.

Ryan Gravenberch is the standout star, going from drifting prospect to the “distinctive” midfield participant for the Reds, so says The Athletic’s James Pearce, however he isn’t the one one.

Cody Gakpo has additionally been a revelation in his personal proper.

Cody Gakpo’s season in numbers

Gakpo’s purpose in opposition to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, expertly taken to make it 3-1 and put Liverpool inside an inch of sealing the title, was his seventeenth of the season.

What’s telling is that that purpose noticed him beat final 12 months’s 16-goal haul, and in over 600 fewer minutes at that.

Klopp utilised Gakpo’s dynamic skills in his personal means, throwing him across the park like an erratic darts participant throughout a board. This may occasionally nicely have proved elementary improvement for the Netherlands worldwide, however there is not any query he is gone up a gear in a extra structured position for his new coach on the attacking left flank.

Pundits Joe Cole and Peter Crouch agreed earlier within the time period that the 25-year-old has “gone up a degree,” and it is thrilling to suppose that Gakpo can ascend larger nonetheless.

Gakpo’s success this season owes largely to Slot’s tactical acumen, however there’s extra nonetheless to return. The likes of Gakpo and Luis Diaz are certain to seek out extra steady outcomes with a high-class goalscorer within the centre.

Nevertheless, Liverpool may additionally discover one other strategy to elevate Gakpo’s sport even additional, making ready to bid for one of the gifted younger playmakers within the enterprise.

Slot driving thrilling Liverpool deal

As per Soccer Insider, Liverpool are considering signing RB Leipzig’s Xavi Simons this summer time, with the Dutch playmaker rising as one in every of FSG’s prime targets.

Aged 21, Simons is likely one of the most fun younger skills on the planet and would price the Anfield facet £60m, ought to they want to advance their curiosity into one thing extra strong. Manchester United are additionally sniffing round.

Nevertheless, with Slot personally driving the deal for yet one more Dutchman to hitch Gakpo, Gravenberch and co, it is one to control for positive.

Think about Gakpo & Xavi Simons

Ought to Trent Alexander-Arnold go away Liverpool as anticipated when his contract expires this summer time, Liverpool will lose one in every of their major (if not the major) artistic sources.

Simons may show to be the brand new playmaking hub, reorienting Liverpool’s creativity from the appropriate channel and into the centre. Provided that Simons has already solid one thing of a “symbiotic partnership” along with his worldwide peer, within the thoughts of journalist Bence Bocsak, it’d show to bear dividends.

The duo performed collectively throughout their time at PSV Eindhoven, in the course of the 2022/23 season, earlier than Gakpo earned himself a £35m switch to Anfield after his performances for his nation on the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

Rating among the many prime 12% of attacking midfielders and wingers cross Europe’s prime 5 leagues over the previous 12 months for passes tried, the highest 13% for progressive passes, the highest 20% for shot-creating actions and the highest 6% for ball recoveries made per 90, as per FBref, Simons may definitely add some panache from the center, bearing the athletic power to cowl for Dominik Szoboszlai too.

Taking a look at his statistics within the Bundesliga this season, you get a better have a look at why Simons is such scorching property, prolific, artistic and combative in a means which might work a deal with in Slot’s squad.

Whereas Liverpool might want to signal a striker to finish the set, a participant resembling Simons would go a good distance towards cementing a peerless degree of attacking fluency at Liverpool, connecting the dots collectively and permitting Gakpo to proceed his rise as one of many Premier League’s most interesting wingers.

Gakpo already ranks among the many prime 6% of positional friends throughout Europe for non-penalty targets scored (0.52) per 90, additionally rating outdoors the highest 20% for pictures taken, which successfully means he is making probably the most out of the probabilities that fall his means.

With a playmaker like Simons, who has been dubbed a “game-changer” by expertise scout Jacek Kulig, one he has already fashioned a affluent on-field relationship with, taking a seat because the central artistic power in Slot’s Liverpool venture, there is not any telling how excessive Gakpo may attain.

Or Simons, for that matter. Having made his title recognized over the previous a number of years, it is simple to neglect that the diminutive Dutch participant continues to be so younger. Given the route Liverpool are going and the success Slot has already had with elevating his countrymen to new ranges, this might be one to control because the market looms giant.