It’s possible that Arne Slot wants to make his mark on the Reds’ middle…
Some people will think that Arne Slot, the new manager of Liverpool, has an almost difficult job. The relatively unknown Dutchman has been put in charge to replace the legendary Jurgen Klopp, who is leaving the club.
It’s safe to say that replacing a legendary boss like Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger rarely goes well for the new person in charge. David Moyes and Unai Emery are two clear examples of this—they were only in charge for ten and eighteen months, respectively, after taking over.
Still, Klopp has at least given his boss a fighting chance after bringing in a young and exciting team to work with. Last summer, the German made sure to bring in new players in the middle of the pitch.
Fabinho, James Milner, Jordan Henderson, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were all sent out, and Wataru Endo, Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, and Ryan Gravenberch were brought in. Slot is sure to be dying to work with this group next season.
Even so, the Feyenoord manager will probably want to add a big name to the middle in the coming months to make things his own. The Reds are reportedly looking for a famous player who can play in front of the back four for a long time.
Liverpool wants to get a midfielder.
Klopp called Endo a “machine” when he arrived from Stuttgart for £16.2 million last year, and he has done a great job. However, at 31 years old, the Japanese international was only ever seen as a short-term replacement for Fabinho, which is why they need to strengthen their central defence again.
According to the Spanish news source AS, the Merseysiders may have found their dream player in Bruno Guimaraes, the star player for Newcastle United. Liverpool is in a battle with Arsenal and Manchester City to sign the Brazilian.
According to the report, the 26-year-old does have a €115m (£100m) release option in his current deal at St. James’ Park, which ends on June 24. However, any interested party could try to negotiate a lower fee of around €80m (£68m) instead.
The second fee would be a much better deal, even though it would still be a big expense. The club wants to make a big splash after missing out on Moises Caicedo a year ago, as AS reported.
How Guimares is like Endo
Newcastle won’t let go of Guimaraes freely, but there’s no reason they would. The playmaker has been so useful since they bought him from Lyon for £40 million in January 2022.
Since moving from France, the versatile player has helped set up 33 goals in 107 games on all fronts, which is a particularly good showing considering he has usually played in the middle of a midfield three.
Despite the Magpies enduring a difficult 2023/24 campaign that has seen them miss out on European qualification altogether, Guimaraes has again dazzled with his all-round game, scoring seven times and racking up eight assists in 37 league games.
To put that into context, Endo, for instance, scored just once and failed to register a single assist in his debut Premier League season, having seemingly been more of a steady eddie than a gung-ho, midfield monster.
Remarkably, however, the Newcastle man is able to combine that attacking threat with a far superior defensive nous, having averaged 3.3 tackles per game this season, while recovering 6.4 balls per game – Endo, by contrast, averaged just 2.4 and 3.7 for those same two metrics, respectively.
Because he is so good at both defence and box-crashing, he has been compared to Declan Rice, an Arsenal hero. According to writer Dean Jones, he is “quite similar to Rice in the way he plays now and would like to play in coming years.”
Like Guimaraes, Rice impressed for the Gunners this season with seven goals and eight assists. According to Sofascore, he created nine “big chances” and averaged 1.2 key passes per game, which was just a bit less than the 20-cap Brazil international, who created 12 “big chances” and averaged 1.7 key passes per game.
With Rice having been a central part of an Arsenal side that ran champions Manchester City close in the title race, the hope would be that landing an Endo upgrade like Guimaraes could lead to a similar story occurring at Anfield.
Why Guimaraes’ signing could benefit Mac Allister
On the occasions in which Klopp opted not to go with Endo as his number six – with the experienced figure having started just 20 league games – the onus fell to fellow new arrival, Mac Allister, to offer the defensive protection in front of the back four.
In truth, that role does not appear to get the best out of the Argentine, scoring five goals and contributing just five assists in the top flight this season – a fall from his ten goals and two assists from the previous campaign at Brighton and Hove Albion.
The World Cup winner was also dribbled past twice per game in 2023–24, compared to once per game at the Amex during the previous season. This suggests that he is not well-suited to playing in a deeper spot.
Jones said that if Arsenal signed Guimaraes, it would “unlock” Rice, but the same could be said about Liverpool’s Mac Allister. According to FBref, Allister is a similar player to the former West Ham United captain, as well as similar to Guimaraes.
With Mac Allister as a number eight and Guimaraes as a number six, Slot could have almost two Rices on hand. That’s the two roles the Arsenal player has played so far under Mikel Arteta.
Having Guimaraes and Mac Allister together would be very dangerous. The ex-Brighton player could do what he does best, which is make an impact at the top of the pitch, where he does well as shown by his stunning goals against Sheffield United and Fulham this season.
Winning the battle for the Magpies star is another matter entirely, although what better way would there be to kick off a new era at Anfield than with such a statement addition.