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The Liverpool futures of Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota have both been questioned(Image: Getty Images)

When Diogo Jota scored Liverpool's first Premier League goal under Arne Slot at Ipswich in August you'd have got decent money on him only getting five more over the course of the season.

Then if you'd said that Darwin Nunez would only get five league goals himself you'd have struggled to find anyone who'd have confidently claimed that Liverpool would be champions.

Champions they are though, and champions who have been busy getting better as the summer additions of Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez have shown.

Indeed rarely has there been so much scope to make alterations to a Premier League winning squad, with Slot's stunning impact in his first season now providing the perfect platform for the Dutchman to implement his own ideas.

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It will be fascinating to see how those ideas play out, and it is in attack that perhaps the most interesting alterations will be made this summer, particularly given the addition of the thrillingly versatile Wirtz.

Just where he plays remains to be seen, but even if he hadn't arrived the futures of Jota and Nunez were going to be subject to scrutiny over the close season given their less than stellar 2024-25 campaigns.

But as all eyes fall upon the likely outgoings from Anfield after a flurry of buys, both men are experiencing very different realities.

Article continues belowDiogo Jota scored Liverpool's first Premier League goal under Arne Slot(Image: PA)

Nunez is the subject of strong interest from Napoli, with the Italian champions said to be willing to pay up to £60million for the Uruguayan who has scored 40 goals in 143 Liverpool games.

It is impossible to avoid the fact that Nunez has underwhelmed during his three seasons at Anfield, but the fact that Liverpool confidently feel that they can get a fee near to the initial one they paid Benfica for Nunez in 2022 (£64m plus £21m in add-ons, some of which haven't been triggered) shows that he will almost always be a player with a market to find.

Having only turned 26 on Tuesday, he's the dashing bad boy who you think you can tame, and sure enough there is an excellent forward in there if only you can find him.

Darwin Nunez's crucial brace at Brentford were two of just five Premier League goals last season (Image: AP)

Meanwhile Jota, who will turn 29 this year, is being viewed with a lot more suspicion by prospective buyers and those who are monitoring Slot's summer decisions closely.

The Portuguese started last season as his new manager's first pick in attack, and he was very much keeping Nunez out of the action right up to sustaining a rib injury against Chelsea in October.

The severity of that knock wasn't publicised by Liverpool, but it is believed to have caused the former Wolves man severe discomfort for much of the remainder of the campaign as he returned to the team in fits and starts.

Both Jota and Nunez face question marks over their futures(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Jota can go down as one of Liverpool's most significant signings of the past decade after he arrived in 2020 and made inroads into the feared front three of Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mo Salah, but his injury record has always been held against him.

But unlike with Nunez it is difficult to find a market for Jota, and whether or not Liverpool even want one is up for debate.

In other summers it might be that offloading him would be the right thing to do after the past season's struggles, but with Nunez surely moving on and Federico Chiesa likely to follow it might be better to hold fire.

Only so much can happen in one summer after all, and given Liverpool have a lot to do - including signing a forward - they might just settle on playing the percentages when it comes to their attackers they currently possess.

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