5 players Liverpool could sign to help catch Manchester City
Very few teams can claim to have had a Premier League season quite as good as Liverpool had last season. The Reds picked up a quite incredible 97 points in the league, the third most of any team in Premier League history, yet only finished second behind Manchester City.
Jurgen Klopp’s men lost just one game all season, a 2-1 defeat to City in January, and collected the highest points total in their history. Yet despite winning all of their last nine league games, they came in one point behind Pep Guardiola’s side.
Even though they missing out on the Premier League title, it was certainly a successful season for the Anfield club. They were crowned European Champions for the sixth time, beating Tottenham 2-0 in Madrid, having pulled off a superb comeback against Barcelona in the semi-finals.
But for Liverpool, the Premier League will be the ultimate aim next season. Having come second best to Manchester City, they will want to go one better this time around. They are still to win the Premier League title, despite winning the old First Division on 18 occasions.
Klopp will want to improve his squad this summer, despite their impressive performances this season. In the trio of Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane, they have one of the fiercest frontlines in European football, but there are other areas of the pitch where they may be looking for improvements.
Here are five men who Liverpool could target to help take them to the next level in the coming season.
#1 Nabil Fekir (Lyon)
This may be a little bit of a repeat of last summer, when Liverpool’s pursuit of Fekir was one of the transfer sagas of the transfer window. The Reds looked to have agreed a deal to sign Fekir, yet pulled out at the last minute because of worries over his injury history. The move could be back on this summer though, after Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas admitted that it was likely that the Frenchman would leave the club this summer.
Being someone who can play as the number nine, or just behind the striker, Fekir could be just the player Liverpool are looking for. Naby Keita never really adapted to English football, while Xherdan Shaqiri was quiet in the second half of the season. The 25-year-old has scored 49 goals over the course of the last three seasons, and could really add something to this Liverpool squad.