Liverpool’s frightening attacking trio of Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane was always going to come to an end eventually.
And the three, who have scored a combined 374 goals for the Premier League club, will be broken up this summer, with Mane set to leave and head to Bayern Munich.
The likes of Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota have been brought in to great effect in recent years as the Reds pre-planned for the departure of their star strikers – and another could now be set to join the club.
And Darwin Nunez is a player tipped to replace Mane. He’s a man Liverpool know well after from their Champions League games last season.
The 22-year-old scored in both legs of their European clash, which the Merseysiders won 6-4 on aggregate.
However, at £85m, he will cost more than the club’s most expensive player – Virgil van Dijk.
“That’s where the two clubs are at, at the moment. It will pain Manchester United fans to admit this, but at the moment Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp are a bigger attraction than Man United and Erik ten Hag,” talkSPORT’s man for the transfer window, Alex Crook explained.
It’s perhaps a move that should have been expected given Klopp’s comments after the Reds’ two-legged victory over the Portuguese side, where he heaped praise on the Uruguayan forward’s footballing ability… and good looks!
“Extremely good looking boy, huh?” the Anfield boss joked earlier this year.
“And a decent player as well,” he added. “Really good, really good. I knew before, of course, but he played pretty much in front of me with his tough battles with Ibrahima Konate.
“He was physically strong, quick, was calm around his finish. Good, really good. I always say in these situations if he is healthy, it’s a big career ahead of him.”
Former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has previously argued a goal scoring central midfielder should also be on their agenda this summer.
The Aston Villa boss said on BT Sport after the defeat to Real Madrid: “For Liverpool, if you think about the next five, six, seven years, they’re going to need a midfielder.
“An eight, who can get goals, who can get double figures.
“They are heavily reliant on the front three, or the front five if you include Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino, but you always need one of those midfielders that are going to get in the box and get you goals.”
But perhaps that could be a role that new signing Fabio Carvalho could play.
The addition of the ex-Fulham youngster may have gone under the radar after busy few weeks on the pitch for Liverpool, but the deal to sign the 19-year-old could be an important one.
The midfielder scored 10 goals and provided nine assists from attacking midfield in the campaign just gone, helping the west Londoners to promotion back to the Premier League.
Whilst he’s not exactly the sort of player Gerrard was referring to, the Portuguese-born technician could be given a chance to impress next season.
The rest of their starting XI is likely to remain the same, which makes sense when you consider that they were essentially two wins away from winning the quadruple.
Klopp likes to make slight changes season by season and keep the opposition guessing, which could see new signings or even a slight change in system.
As for what that may look like, talkSPORT has taken a look…
4-3-3 – No new summer signings
4-3-3 – Nunez and Carvalho in
4-2-1-3 – Firmino as a No.10
Source: Talk Sport