Arne Slot has already made the Mohamed Salah question the centre of Liverpool's summer. "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," he said, and the numbers from this season explain why that sounds less like planning and more like a necessity. Liverpool's four main wingers scored 26 goals this season, down from 71 last season.

Why Slot wants more end product out wide

Slot did not hide where he thinks Liverpool lost their edge. "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," he said.

That combination mattered because it produced goals and chances from both sides. Slot's own summary was blunt: Liverpool tried the same structure again this season, but "there hasn't been the end product that we had last season." He also pointed to the wider decline by saying, "We all - me included - didn't bring the same level that we brought last season."

Salah remains the reference point. He scored 257 goals and created more than 100 assists for Liverpool, and replacing that kind of wing output is a different job from simply signing another attacker. That is why a target such as Yan Diomande matters. It is also why a player like Bradley Barcola, who has been linked as a possible addition, sits in the conversation when Arsenal are also reported to be interested and Paris Saint Germain enter the picture.

The basic point is hard to dodge. Liverpool cannot go into next season expecting the same wing-to-full-back production and hope the gap fixes itself.

What the numbers say about the title defence

Slot's post-season verdict was wider than the wing debate. He said the word that best described the campaign was "injury", and he added that he was happy Liverpool had qualified for the Champions League after what happened across the year. The league table backed that feeling up, with Liverpool finishing fifth on 59 points.

That is the backdrop to the transfer work now. The wing issue was not a neat tactical detail sitting apart from everything else, it was one of the reasons the title defence faded. If Liverpool want to get back to the level Slot keeps referring to, the next winger cannot just be a name on a list. He has to replace output.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 4 outlets. How we work →