Arne Slot to prioritise Mo Salah replacement for summer transfer window | OneFootball

Arne Slot has made a replacement for Mohamed Salah a priority in the summer transfer market as he looks to give Liverpool back the potency on the wings they had in their title-winning campaign but lost this season.

Liverpool are interested in RB Leipzig’s Yan Diomande after Salah brought down the curtain on an extraordinary Anfield career in which he scored 257 goals and created more than 100.

But Slot accepted Liverpool struggled to have the same impact on either flank this season, after also selling Luis Diaz and losing the creative right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Liverpool’s four main wingers only got 26 goals this season – 12 from Salah, nine from Cody Gakpo, three from Federico Chiesa and two from Rio Ngumoha – whereas in the previous campaign, the Egyptian got 34 on his own, the Dutchman 18, Diaz 17 and the Italian two.

And Slot said: “One of the reasons why everyone is talking about wingers is because Mo is leaving. It makes complete sense to think about at least one.

“I think last season gives you the answer. How important were our wingers last season for our success. They were scoring goals, providing goals, so they were a vital part of us winning the league last season and, in general in football, you see more and more focus on wingers.

“Last season, one of the reasons why we were so difficult to play against was because we had threats over on the right side, on the left side. It was not only the wingers, it is the combination between the winger and the full back.”

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Mo Salah played his final game on Sunday with Liverpool now seeking a replacement (PA)

Liverpool also struggled to find a regular partnership on the right flank, with Conor Bradley suffering from injury, Jeremie Frimpong enduring a difficult first year at Anfield and Curtis Jones and Dominik Szoboszlai filling in as full-backs.

And Slot added: “Last season I think if you had to describe the style of play I would describe it as it was very reliant on the winger-full back combinations. We have tried that this season again but there hasn’t been the end product that we had last season. That is not to say it’s only about them. We all - me included - didn't bring the same level that we brought last season.”