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Liverpool will look to strengthen again in the summer, has one new recruit already been written off?
Mohamed Salah is the one who has seen his form questioned the most this season for Liverpool, despite feeding off scraps for most of the season.
For perspective, Salah’s expected goals tally for this season is only 6.82 and has scored five. Yes, he has underperformed, but he was top of the xG chart last season. He can’t do it all on his own, nor should he be expected to. One of the problems has been the changes that Arne Slot has made at full-back with neither Milos Kerkez or Jeremie Frimpong posting the sort of numbers that their predecessors used to.
Liverpool linked with Lewis Hall
Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold were well known for their productivity from the flanks. Kerkez has one goal and two assists in 37 appearances this season, Frimpong has two goals and two assists in 24 appearances with only two assists in the Premier League. Kerkez has one goal and one assist in the league. No wonder Salah is struggling. Even in Robertson’s first season at Anfield, he managed to get five assists in the Premier League.
Liverpool clearly aren’t convinced with Kerkez and, according to Caught Offside, have been linked with a move for Newcastle United’s Lewis Hall, a player who caught the eye around Europe by the way that he dealt with Lamine Yamal. The Barcelona prodigy was kept quiet throughout the Champions League clash at St James’ Park and Hall is now a player who is in demand with Arsenal and Man City also “monitoring” his situation. Newcastle are reported to value the England hopeful in the region of £70m.
What Slot has said about Milos Kerkez
Slot has already backed his summer signing this season and insisted that backing the younger full-back, rather than giving Robertson more game time was the right decision: “This is what you get if you play longer together with your teammates,” Slot explained. “This is what you get if you keep playing those players, even if they are maybe in sometimes having moments in games that are not as good as other moments, or games that have not been as good as other games.
“This is also normal for younger players and the only thing you can do as a manager is keep trusting them and keep believing in them because we know, we signed [him], we saw his potential and we knew – and it already has been shown – that potential will be seen if you keep playing them.” After spending £40m, Liverpool should be getting more out of Kerkez, if they have to spend £70m on a left-back in the summer, questions need to be asked.
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