Why Liverpool are looking at Yan Diomande and role Jurgen Klopp could play in transfer

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A closer look at RB Leipzig's Yan Diomande, who has been linked with a move to Liverpool this summerA familiar complaint of Liverpool this season has been their lack of pace in the attacking areas.In a campaign that has seen Mohamed Salah's output drop from otherworldly to simply respectable, Cody Gakpo, on the opposite flank, has struggled to reproduce the form displayed last season en route to the Premier League crown.Alexander Isak, the club's £125m record purchase, has had a campaign to forget on Merseyside too, with injuries and fitness issues blighting his time so far.Rio Ngumoha, at 17, has offered enough glimpses to suggest he at least has a a massive future at Anfield and Hugo Ekitike was a bright spot prior to the Achilles rupture that wrecked his season and ruined his World Cup dream with France.READ MORE: Danny Murphy says Liverpool signing hasn't worked and wants him replaced with Newcastle starREAD MORE: Liverpool revise ticket rises plan after fan protests as statement madeBut with Salah now inside the final month of a ludicrously successful nine-year Liverpool career, attention has turned to just who replaces him and his goals.The theory at Anfield is that Salah is a true unicorn and therefore irreplaceable in a traditional sense.Two-hundred and fifty-seven goals to date means only Roger Hunt and Ian Rush have scored more than him in Liverpool's 134-year history, so the idea of another Salah growing on the trees is fanciful.Asked how he intends to get the best out of Isak, who arrived on Merseyside on September 1 after scoring 44 goals for Newcastle United across the previous two seasons, Arne Slot revealed that the thinking might have to change when it comes to the right side of the attack that Salah has made his own since 2017."[Getting the most from Isak] is definitely part of thinking about the [Salah] replacement," the head coach said last Friday. "Because since I have been here - and it is the same at a lot of clubs - it is mainly a left footer on the right and a right footer on the left."I have seen Alex scoring also a lot from crosses which were played from the right, right footed, Trent Alexander-Arnold crosses, if you want to call them like that."So that is definitely part of how we are looking at things, but we try to sign the best possible available player who we can afford."Something else which also happens at certain clubs is: ‘OK, that is the best player in the world in that position, let’s try and get him.'"That is not how we work, we try and sign the best possible player who is available for us."One player who has seen his name regularly linked since is RB Leipzig's Yan Diomande.The Reds have scouted the 19-year-old winger during what has become something of a breakout season for him in the Bundesliga.

They have likely been impressed.A hat-trick, scored in a 6-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt on December 6, made him the youngest player in 60 years of Germany's top division to net three goals in the same game and his star has been on the rise ever since.He has become the breakout star of the Bundesliga this season, easing Leipzig's transition to a new-look attack following sales of Benjamin Sesko, Xavi Simons and Luis Openda, who is on loan at Juventus.Liverpool have a long history of dealing with Leipzig, dating back to their pursuit of Naby Keita in the summer of 2017, when they struck an unusual agreement to land the Guinea playmaker the following year for what was eventually around £52m.FOLLOW OUR LIVERPOOL FC FACEBOOK PAGE! All the latest news and analysis from Anfield on the Liverpool Echo's dedicated LFC Facebook pageSince then the clubs have worked on deals for Ibrahima Konate, Dominik Szoboszlai and Fabio Carvalho while also holding talks around the possibility of sending Harvey Elliott to Leipzig prior to his loan switch to Aston Villa on deadline day.Diomande moved his representation to American company Roc Nation earlier this season and the ECHO has been told how the firm are looking at potentially opening up the floor to interested parties, including Liverpool, this summer.Talk of fees upwards of €100m (£86.4m) have been spoken about for a player who has 12 goals and eight assists in 31 Bundesliga games this term and the influential website Transfermarkt recently highlighted the strides made by the teenager this year with their valuation models.According to Transfermarkt, Diomande is the player whose value has increased the most across European football this season, rising from €1.5m in June of last year, when he was at Spanish side Leganes, to a whopping €75m at die Roten Bullen.Despite the obvious potential for profit, however, Red Bull CEO Oliver Mintzlaff recently gave his opinion that Leipzig should not be looking to sell the winger for any fee this summer."If I were managing director of sport, I wouldn't sell this young player," Mintzlaff told Sky Sport Germany.

The goal is to get back there."Mintzlaff's role within the Red Bull structure means he can only advise on the decisions made by at RB Leipzig but an influential voice such as his would carry weight when it comes to listening to offers for Diomande.On the flip side, Red Bull's global head of soccer himself, Jurgen Klopp, would be perfectly positioned to advise Diomande on the trappings of Liverpool life, should things progress later this summer.For now, though, an injection of speed into the Reds' frontline this summer continues to be a prevalent theme.A speed of 36 km/h in a counter-attack against Augsburg ended with him putting more than 3.5 metres between him and the home side's defence before his composure allowed him to find Antonio Nusa for the assist. It's the sort of electric pace that has been absent too often for Slot's side during this troubled term.Diomande's highest rate of knots this term, clocked back in January at 36.3 km/h, would place him inside the Premier League's top 10 this season and it's easy to see why he is attracting such attention.