Jamie Carragher believes Arne Slot will have to change the position of a “vitally important” Liverpool star if they beat Bayern Munich to Florian Wirtz this summer.
Wirtz is set to leave Bayer Leverkusen this summer with the Bundesliga side reportedly willing to listen to offers of around €120m (£101m) for the playmaker.
Manchester City were also in the race with Bayern and the Reds but are now said to have dropped over the running over the exorbitant transfer fee and wages, which could make it a €300m deal in total.
A Liverpool move for Wirtz has raised doubts as to what will become of Szoboszlai, who’s played in the German’s No.10 position under Slot this term, and Carragher believes he’s “vitally important”.
“I’ve had this thing with Szoboszlai where I think he’s got the qualities of a central midfielder, the way we describe his energy. It’s more what he does off the ball than on the ball,” Carragher analysed for Sky Sports.
“Liverpool are getting linked to a guy from Germany at the moment, from Bayer Leverkusen. Flirtz? Wirtz? Well, they’re flirting with him. Florian Wirtz.
“What would be interesting is let’s say that deal got done, Szoboszlai’s energy is vitally important to Liverpool. Could you do with that energy in central midfield?”
Carragher got the chance to ask Slot before kick-off against Brighton if Szoboszlai – who scored the second Liverpool goal in their 3-2 defeat at the Amex – was indeed being trialled as a central midfielder.
“Uh, yes, he is,” the Dutchman responded, joking: “Before this I said is it really necessary for me to go in because Jamie knows everything.
“Dominik is playing as an eight, with Ryan as a six and Harvey [Elliott] a bit more forward.
“Dominik sees his best position as an eight as well, so it will be interesting to see how he does in this position.”
Jeremie Frimpong is reportedly set for a medical as Liverpool’s first (and very odd) first summer signing, but Slot wouldn’t be drawn on those reports after the game.
He did though confirm in his pre-match press conference that they’re looking to strengthen the squad this summer.
“First of all, then you assume that we are going to bring in new players!” he said. “And I’ve said many times already that we, as a club, are very happy with the players we’ve got.
“Part of it is our decision but in some situations players that haven’t played a lot are not looking forward to another season not playing a lot. So, there’s always an ongoing process and we have to make sure that we are prepared if we can strengthen the squad.
“This club has always done that, no matter if we have 19, 20, 21 or 22 players. If we feel we can strengthen the squad, we do so.
“But it’s difficult to strengthen this squad because there’s a reason why we won the league — because we have so many great players. It’s an ongoing process what we are talking about.
“I think this club has shown so many times in the past that they will make the right decisions, and we’ve made the right decision last season as well not to bring in a player at all — except for Federico Chiesa — and that worked out quite well or not. I think it did!”