When Arne Slott spoke in his pre-match press convention earlier than Liverpool traveled to Elland Highway to face Leeds United, it was fairly sobering that the top coach instructed his focus was on securing a spot in subsequent 12 months’s Champions League, quite than combating to defend his hard-won Premier League title.
In fact Slott’s opinion is appropriate. Liverpool are a far cry from final 12 months’s unyielding success and any discuss of a problem to top-flight Arsenal shall be ridiculed by even their most ardent supporters.
One in every of Liverpool’s largest issues this season has been their struggles within the build-up, particularly on the proper. Trent Alexander-Arnold’s absence has been keenly felt, with sporting director Richard Hughes in search of a artistic substitute for the previous vice-captain.
Liverpool in search of substitute for Alexander-Arnold
Liverpool have already technically changed Alexander-Arnold, signing Jeremy Frimpong for £29.5m this summer season. Nevertheless, neither Frimpong nor Conor Bradley boasts the identical playmaking means because the 27-year-old, who’s discovering his means at Actual Madrid after leaving Anfield when his contract expired in June.
The £116m signing of Florian Wirtz was supposed to assist cross the spark of creativity, however Wirtz’s struggles this season have been well-documented and, as analyst Raj Chohan put it, Liverpool’s “build-up combine on the proper wing this season is horrible”.
These round him know that Wirtz has world-class potential within the Premier League and will turn out to be a celebrity playmaker and marquee participant. However he does not actually play in the proper lane, and that is the place Slott and Hughes want to repair Liverpool’s progressive passing.
Maybe that’s the reason FSG are occupied with signing Bayern Munich winger Michael Olise, who has been shortlisted for the French squad this week, German outlet BILD reported.
Oliseh, 23, has gone from power to power since becoming a member of the Allianz Area from Crystal Palace in 2024, however Liverpool might want to pay greater than £100m in the event that they need to safe his contract, ostensibly as a long-term substitute for Mohamed Salah.
Bild imagine that Liverpool have put Oliseh again on their shortlist regardless of Bayern’s not-for-sale stance.
What Olise brings to Liverpool
Alexander-Arnold’s affect at Liverpool can’t be underestimated. Merely put, he’s a novel kind of participant and his transfer to the Santiago Bernabéu was at all times greater than a blow to the Anfield facet’s delight.
Most assists by a defender in PL historical past | ||
|---|---|---|
rank | participant | help |
1 | Trent Alexander-Arnold | 64 |
2 | andy robertson | 60 |
3 | Leighton Baines | 53 |
4 | graham le saux | 44 |
5 | Kieran Trippier | 38 |
Statistics by Premier League | ||
Olise will not be a right-back, however he can be the proper successor to Salah on the proper, bringing his personal taste to Merseyside quite than attempting to emulate the Egyptian’s scientific efficiency.
The previous Palace star has scored 29 objectives and supplied 34 assists in 76 video games for Bayern. He’s regarded by teammate Serge Gnabry as “probably the greatest gamers on the earth”.
Bodily and athletic, Olise is nearly unbeatable in relation to creating for his teammates, establishing passing patterns, and including strain to the ultimate third with unplayable passes.
Based on FBref, he ranked within the high 1% of attacking midfielders and wingers in Europe’s high 5 leagues up to now 12 months for assists and shot-creating actions, high 4% for progressive passes, high 12% for progressive carries, and high 5% for profitable take-ons per 90 factors.
A cross is taken into account progressive if the space between the place to begin and the subsequent contact is at the least 10 meters nearer to the finished cross into the opponent’s aim or into the penalty space.
That does not imply he is a one-trick pony, however he has the qualities of a formidable ball-striker that many defenders and goalkeepers within the Premier League are acquainted with.
He has confirmed to be a celebrity within the English sport, and since transferring as much as the subsequent degree in Germany, Oliseh has reinvented the slot proper flank and developed a playmaking expertise that has reignited Trent’s presence at Anfield.
Gakpo’s huge improve: £70m ‘celebrity’ eager to affix Liverpool in January
Liverpool’s entrance line, led by Arne Slott, has been fully out of shape this season.
