Salah and Mane could leave Liverpool in summer transfer window as moves ‘inevitable’
It is ‘inevitable’ Liverpool will lose one of their famous front three of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane or Roberto Firmino this summer, talkSPORT has been told.
The Reds are seemingly just weeks away from surrendering their Premier League title after a total collapse of form – suffering their sixth Premier League defeat in a row at Anfield to leave them eighth in the table.
Liverpool are 22 points behind leaders Manchester City side, who suffered a hiccup this weekend with a defeat to derby rivals Man United – halting their winning run at 21 games – but they’re still miles ahead at the league summit.
It’s clear there needs to be a change on Merseyside, with the champions’ injury crisis this season showing their squad just isn’t strong enough.
But finances remain tight due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a complete squad overhaul unlikely to happen for Jurgen Klopp if he does not first part with one of his biggest stars.
During the defeat to Chelsea in midweek, Klopp’s decision to take Salah off during the game prompted a cryptic message from the Egyptian King’s agent on social media, with his future at Anfield continuing to be a topic of gossip.
And talkSPORT host and Liverpool fan Tony Cascarino believes Klopp is in for a ‘strange’ summer transfer window, as he warned the German to brace for bids for one of his attacking trio.
“Well I think that it’s probably inevitable that one of the big players in the front three will go this summer,” he told Natalie Sawyer on Weekend Sports Breakfast.
“The problem is that, around Europe, there is not a lot of money to go and spend the sort of sums that Liverpool would want for a Mo Salah, Mane or Firmino.
“It’s going to be a strange period for a number of clubs, including Liverpool, in this next summer window.”
Since arriving from Roma in the summer of 2017, Salah has scored a remarkable 118 goals in 189 appearances for Liverpool in all competitions and formed a clinical front three partnership with Firmino and Mane.
Trevor Sinclair suggested Mane and Salah have a ‘relationship problem’ in the wake of the defeat to Chelsea, with Firmino also struggling this season after scoring six goals in the league this season.
Yet it is not just up front where Liverpool are struggling this season; the Reds have also conceded 36 goals and used more than 20 different centre-back partnerships.
Of course, injuries to Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez have wreaked havoc on the stability of Klopp’s defence, but Cascarino believes there are bigger issues than the absence of key players to injury.
“I don’t have great confidence about the way that Liverpool are playing,” he added. “I think they are getting exposed so often in games.
“Certainly behind their back line, playing a high line, teams are looking to get behind them.
“If all Liverpool fans keep going back to Van Dijk and Gomez… they did play in the 7-2 defeat [to Aston Villa], they did play at Watford when they lost 3-0 at the end of last season.
“There were signs teams were trying to get behind Liverpool. And yeah, they went top of the league and looked fantastic for a period.
“I think there are a number of teams who know they have to do. Chelsea’s line-up stunk of a team, to me, that just went with one objective which was to get behind the backline of Liverpool and expose them and exploit them – and they did it.”
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