Liverpool must replace 3/10 flop who’s “Europa League level”

Liverpool supporters are split right now, and this is how they have been divided.

You have many fans who are optimistic about Liverpool’s chances for the rest of the season. Arne Slot‘s side have won five of their past six matches in all competitions, and they have tightened up in defence after such porous displays throughout the opening months.

However, there are many more supporters looking at Liverpool’s situation with glass-half-empty attitudes – and who could blame them? The Reds continue to flatter to deceive, with Alexis Mac Allister’s last-gasp winner at Nottingham Forest plastering over a dismal display, as bad as they have played since the start of the term.

Hopes of qualifying for next season’s Champions League group phase hang in the balance, and missing out on that target would be a disaster.

Slot will need all his stars to shine over the next few months, and that certainly includes Mohamed Salah. However, the Egyptian King’s summer sale is starting to look more probable.

Why Salah must be sold this summer

Last season’s hero is this season’s hindrance. That’s unfair on the mighty Salah, but there’s no question that he’s fallen from a proverbial cliff since the summer, so far removed from his world-class sharpness.

In the Premier League this term, the right-sided forward has scored four goals and supplied six assists across 19 appearances.

Against Forest, he was ineffective once again. Salah’s Premier League scoring drought has stretched to nine games, and on Sunday, he failed to take a single shot or attempt a single dribble, missing the mark with each of his four crosses.

These are uncharted waters, but time is not on Salah’s side and it’s beginning to seem likely that the 33-year-old will leave Liverpool and move to somewhere like the Saudi Pro League this summer.

It almost seems blasphemous to suggest that Salah needs to move on, but there’s no denying the club legend has suffered a shocking decline over the past year.

Age and a lifetime of tireless service make it easier to accept the veteran’s deterioration than that of another of the Reds’ star forwards, though.

Liverpool need to replace 3/10 forward

Liverpool made an error when they sold Luis Diaz to Bayern Munich in a £65.5m deal last summer. Leaving Cody Gakpo as the only regular left-sided forward has illuminated the holes in the Dutchman’s game.

There’s no question that Gakpo, 26, has been poor this season, one-dimensional down the wing. In fact, analyst Raj Chohan said in January that he is a “Europa League-level player“, lacking physical and technical attributes to place him in world-class contention.

At the City Ground, Gakpo sadly endured another tough outing, unable to influence much in attack and yet again lacking an answer to the low block that has proved such an obstacle for Slot’s ball-playing system this season.

Rio Ngumoha’s electric cameo was not missed by the Liverpool fanbase. The 17-year-old winger has broken into Slot’s senior squad this season, but minutes have been few and far between in the Premier League.

After the game, Chohan said that the teenager came on and provided “the dribbling threat on the flank that Liverpool were badly missing” until the final fifth of the game. It is not overblown to suggest that Ngumoha did more than both Gakpo and Salah.

The data fails to illustrate the fearlessness on display when Ngumoha was unleashed. Even so, it’s curious to note that he completed two of three dribbles. Gakpo did not even attempt a dribble.

With this in mind, Football FanCast decided to give Gakpo a 3/10 match rating, with his consistently disappointing displays negating much of Slot’s effort to restore some fluency and balance to the frontline.

Moreover, the Dutchman had the fewest touches of any starting Liverpool player on the day. He is untrusted as a make-things-happen forward, too predictable and with efforts on goal that have become too easily preventable.

Ultimately, Liverpool would be unwise to sell Gakpo and leave the young and inexperienced Ngumoha as the only starter on the attacking left flank.

But Ngumoha has shown more dynamism in his game, and it’s clear that the England U19 star could end up replacing Gakpo as the top choice next year.

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