Liverpool must sell Salah and sign the new Kvaratskhelia lighting up Bundesliga as bid prepared for club legend

Arne Slot can’t be accused of not trying to find the right solution or the right balance in a Liverpool team that continues to take one step forwards and two back.

After good wins against Aston Villa and Real Madrid, it looked like the corner had finally been turned. Two clean sheets, a robust midfield and Florian Wirtz pulling the strings in the final third, and then a humbling against Man City brought things firmly back to earth.

It was the same again this week after a comfortable win over West Ham before surrendering meekly to Sunderland with only a goal line block from Federico Chiesa preventing things from being worse. That Mohamed Salah spent more time on the bench than on the pitch in those two games hasn’t been missed either.

Saudi Pro League consider Mo Salah Liverpool bid

There were already rumours rumbling in the background suggesting that interest from Saudi Arabia could resurface over the next two transfer windows with The Telegraph now claiming that a bid is being readied.

It is more than a coincidence that this report has emerged as Salah’s position and importance at Liverpool is being questioned. The Egyptian will be heading off to the African Cup of Nations soon and Slot has found a solution of sorts to cover his absence, but the Reds must cash in if the interest from Saudi becomes more concrete and sign a player compared to Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

Liverpool are said to be posturing at the front of the queue to sign one of Europe’s hottest prospects in the shape of RB Leipzig’s Yan Diomande who has a €100m (£87m) release clause according to TEAMtalk.

Despite his form this season, this is the sort of sum that Richard Hughes could easily milk from a league that is more than willing to overpay for the biggest names in the game. With four goals and four assists so far this season, Diomande has lit up the Bundesliga with his dribbling ability, pace and end product and, at 19-years old, he is tipped to only get better.

Slot getting desperate after dropping Salah

Extending Salah’s contract was never about keeping him for the next two seasons in the expectation that he would repeat last season’s feats, instead, it was to protect his value, knowing that the Saudi Pro League would welcome him with open arms.

Discussing Salah being dropped on the BBC Football Daily podcast, Chris Sutton reckons that Slot has gotten desperate and that the veteran winger needs to get his head down: “So Szoboszlai’s, in Jamie Carragher's words, that's Liverpool's best player this season, being pushed out to the right, not his best position. And Isak being played through the middle, although he scored (against West Ham), means that Liverpool's best signing of the summer, the one to have settled in the most, Ekitike, isn't playing either.

“So it highlights this imbalance within the Liverpool squad of you're not getting everybody in their preferential position, really, because of how this is all being put together. And the biggest thing is their recent form and the pressure which Arne Slot will would have felt under himself, because nobody could have envisaged Liverpool to spend what they have spent on on talented forward players, them to come in and all of a sudden there to be an imbalance in the team for them to be shipping goals for them not to click in in forward areas.

And it's just I think Arne Slot has got desperate and it's just about just about winning however they win and and they did do and it is it is a case of of what happens next but but Mo Salah just you know he has to do what

“Every other player or every other normal player has to do get his head down and work hard and and earn his way back into the team.”

Few would be surprised if Salah leaves in January, equally though, would anyone really be surprised if he returned from AFCON a new man and found his shooting boots once again?