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

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

There isn’t any 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 shall be annoyed with their respective top-flight campaigns and shall be decided to come back again stronger subsequent 12 months.

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

The mastery behind Slot’s genius has been in his delicate and important tactical tweaks to Jurgen Klopp’s system, additionally shaping current 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 is not the one one.

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

Cody Gakpo’s season in numbers

Gakpo’s aim towards 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 aim noticed him beat final 12 months’s 16-goal haul, and in over 600 fewer minutes at that.

Klopp utilised Gakpo’s dynamic abilities in his personal manner, throwing him across the park like an erratic darts participant throughout a board. This will properly have proved elementary growth for the Netherlands worldwide, however there is not any query he is gone up a gear in a extra structured function 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 increased nonetheless.

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

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

Slot driving thrilling Liverpool deal

As per Soccer Insider, Liverpool are keen on signing RB Leipzig’s Xavi Simons this summer season, with the Dutch playmaker rising as certainly one of FSG’s prime targets.

Aged 21, Simons is among the most fun younger abilities on this 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 affix Gakpo, Gravenberch and co, it is one to control for certain.

Think about Gakpo & Xavi Simons

Ought to Trent Alexander-Arnold depart Liverpool as anticipated when his contract expires this summer season, Liverpool will lose certainly one of their major (if not the first) inventive sources.

Simons may show to be the brand new playmaking hub, reorienting Liverpool’s creativity from the fitting channel and into the centre. On condition that Simons has already solid one thing of a “symbiotic partnership” together 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, through 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 actually add some panache from the center, bearing the athletic power to cowl for Dominik Szoboszlai too.

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

Whereas Liverpool might want to signal a striker to finish the set, a participant comparable to 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 exterior the highest 20% for photographs taken, which successfully means he is making probably the most out of the possibilities that fall his manner.

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 inventive drive in Slot’s Liverpool undertaking, there is not any telling how excessive Gakpo may attain.

Or Simons, for that matter. Having made his identify identified over the previous a number of years, it is easy to neglect that the diminutive Dutch participant remains to be so younger. Given the path Liverpool are going and the success Slot has already had with elevating his countrymen to new ranges, this could possibly be one to control because the market looms giant.