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Liverpool players are heading off on their summer holidays knowing that some of them will not return to Anfield.
The Reds finished up their season in style on Sunday, with a memorable Premier League trophy lift bringing a fantastic campaign to a close.
The next time a Liverpool team takes to the field in competitive action, the XI sent out by Arne Slot could look a whole lot different.
Despite their unexpected title win, major surgery is expected on the Liverpool team ahead of the new campaign.
Much of the change is set to take place in the forward positions.
Florian Wirtz is being targeted as the Reds’ new No.
10, while links to Eintracht Frankfurt striker Hugo Ekitike have begun to re-emerge.
Should Liverpool pull off two excellent deals and bring Wirtz and Ekitike to Anfield, they could look especially formidable next season.
Photo by Christof Koepsel/Getty Images
It is by now clear that Wirtz is not being signed to play as Liverpool’s most attacking forward next season.
The 22-year-old is clearly being targeted for a deeper-lying role, with a new central striker still a priority for the Reds.
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With Ekitike seemingly a front-runner to fill that remit, it is possible that he and Wirtz line up in a new-look front two for Liverpool next term.
In our opinion, the best Liverpool looked last season was away at Manchester City, where Slot sprang a surprise to play Curtis Jones and Dominik Szoboszlai as kind of joint false No.
9’s.
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Having seen this tactic work so successfully, we think Slot is planning something similar on a more permanent basis in 2025/26.
Ekitike and Wirtz are obviously different players to Jones and Szoboszlai, and part of the reason things worked at City was because of Jones making surprising attacking runs from deep.
However, given that he also likes to drop deep and pick up pockets of space in an attacking midfield position, we actually think Ekitike could play this role, albeit from a higher starting position.
There will be some tweaks, but that 2-0 win at the Etihad Stadium in February can be the blueprint.
This summer is such an exciting one for Liverpool fans because Ekitike and Wirtz are unlikely to be the only new arrivals who go virtually straight into the starting XI.
There may be a period of settling in for all of them, but Liverpool could be signing four players who will be part of their strongest team moving forward.
Jeremie Frimpong is set to arrive at right-back, while Milos Kerkez will likely come in on the left.
Conor Bradley and Andy Robertson may have a thing or two to say about it, but it’s probable that the two new arrivals will be first choice in the long-run.
Along with Ekitike and Wirtz, Frimpong and Kerkez will add a fresh look to Liverpool’s XI next season and will give Slot the best chance of replicating his Man City masterpiece on a weekly basis.
Liverpool Predicted XI 2025/26
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