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Fabio Carvalho pushed to leave Liverpool, but it’s a move that benefits all parties
Fabio Carvalho is understood to be closing in on a loan move to RB Leipzig, and I think this has been one that’s been on the cards for a while after he completely fell out of favour at Liverpool since the World Cup.
When he first joined last summer, following Liverpool also starting work on that deal the previous January, it was seen as a real coup for Liverpool. They beat off competition from a few other big clubs, including RB Leipzig at the time as well, and there was real excitement that they’d seen off rivals in Europe for a top young player.
Then if you look at his first few weeks at Liverpool, it looked quite promising. He scored early on in his Anfield career, opening his account in that 9-0 win over Bournemouth, and scored that late, late winner against Newcastle not long after. He started the Merseyside Derby as well, but overall the team wasn’t where it should’ve been, and he was one of the victims. If you look post-World Cup, he started only two games, so it’s not a huge surprise that he would look to leave on loan, or even permanently this summer. I was quite struck that he didn’t even get off the bench in the last game of the season against Southampton in a 4-4 draw when a lot of changes were made, and he must’ve been thinking ‘can I really do another year of this?’
My understanding is that this move has come about more from the player, and understandably so if you look at how little he played after the World Cup, but I think the terms of the loan deal tell you that there’s still hope he has a future at Anfield. Liverpool didn’t want to give up on him immediately, and they made sure there was no buy option at the end of the loan, which I believe Leipzig were keen on. Liverpool still believe there’s a player there who could be useful for them in the future, but for now you look at what Liverpool are trying to do in the transfer market, there’s a desire to strengthen their midfield – Alexis Mac Allister is a similar sort of player who’s already come in, and there could be more additions in that area, as I mentioned in my column last week, while Curtis Jones also made a really positive impact in the latter stages of last season, so there wouldn’t necessarily be much chance of Carvalho playing regularly this season.
Overall, I think this is a move that suits all parties well – Carvalho gets to go and play, and at a good level as well with a team in the Champions League and hoping to compete at the top end of the Bundesliga. Liverpool, meanwhile, get the chance to see what he can do and how he performs once he’s settled and gets more opportunities. Leipzig then also get a very talented young player with a point to prove. As I said, Liverpool weren’t keen on a buy option being in there, so I think there’s still a chance, even if only a slim chance, that Carvalho comes back to Liverpool in twelve months time and is ready to make an impression on the first-team. Remember he’s still only 20, so there is time for him to turn things around, even if Liverpool slightly looked like the wrong place at the wrong time for him now.
He’s an ambitious player, that’s why he joined Liverpool. He believes in himself and that’s why I think he and his entourage have been the driving force behind this, but I think Liverpool are sympathetic to his situation and they’ve also found a solution that works for them.
Liverpool have long been interested in Mason Mount but Man Utd move looks most likely now
While it might all be about Mason Mount and Manchester United now, I can confidently say that Liverpool were very interested in the Chelsea midfielder earlier this summer. He’s actually a player who’s long been on Liverpool’s radar, going back to when he was playing at youth level and there was a possibility that they could’ve signed him when he was about 16 or 17, but unfortunately it never materialised.
There was, as I understand it, the genuine belief that there was a chance of signing Mount from Chelsea this summer, looking at his contract situation and the general state of Chelsea’s squad and the need for players to be sold this summer. I’m told Liverpool felt they had a genuine chance of getting him, but it then became clear that the big issue would be that Chelsea were asking for a lot of money for a player with just a year left on his contract. The player also made it clear that if he was to move, Manchester United would be the club he preferred. From that point, Liverpool walked away and put themselves out of the picture.
Looking at how things have progressed since then, I think there’ll be some relief that they did walk away, because it looks like United are going to end up paying a lot for him. With Chelsea managing to offload a number of players like Kai Havertz, Mateo Kovacic, and the likes of Kalidou Koulibaly, Hakim Ziyech and Edouard Mendy to Saudi Arabia, there’s less of a need now for Chelsea to sell Mount for a fee they have to heavily compromise on.
I certainly don’t see Liverpool coming back in for Mount, I could be proven wrong, but if the asking price stays at over £50m, I just don’t see Liverpool being in the mix. I think it’s now down to United and Chelsea to find a compromise, and from what I’m hearing it might not be too far away now anyway.
Liverpool aren’t chasing Victor Osimhen, but here’s what Darwin Nunez needs to do to turn things around
While I don’t like to dismiss stories or talk down what other journalists might be hearing from their sources, I have to say I would be amazed to see Liverpool sign Victor Osimhen, as has been reported elsewhere, or any other striker of that calibre or asking price, for that matter.
Liverpool have got a lot of options up front now, having signed Darwin Nunez last summer and Cody Gakpo in January, most likely with the expectation that Roberto Firmino was going to leave, which he has. There’s also Luis Diaz coming back from injury and Diogo Jota ending the season well once he returned to fitness.
It hasn’t quite happened for Nunez yet, but my understanding is the plan is to stick with this crop of players up front, so I’d be very surprised to see another forward signed this summer, unless of course there was another major injury in that department.
Osimhen’s obviously a very good player who’s had a great season, but I just don’t see Liverpool being in the market for that kind of player – they might more likely look for a younger forward as a signing for the future who could grow into being a starter later, but for the first-team I think the focus remains on midfield as a priority, and then beyond that maybe a centre-back.
On Nunez’s situation, it was a bit of a mixed first season for him at Anfield, but I think there were some promising signs. It’s easy to look at the price tag and his final tally of 15 goals then it might not look like the best season, but if you look at the goals he’s scored, a lot of them have come against top teams – he’s scored against Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, and then Real Madrid and Napoli in the Champions League. This ability to make his mark in big games has not gone unnoticed.
The key thing now is getting Nunez’s role right, and helping him find consistency. There is a question now over his role, with the Gakpo signing in January complicating things slightly, as he’s really started to nail down that number 9 role. He’s maybe more of a Firmino-like player than Nunez is, so how that ties in with fitting the Uruguayan in as well, I’m not sure. From speaking to people at Liverpool, they seem pretty sure that if he’s going to make it he’s going to have to play down the middle, that’s where he’s got that pace and physical presence, and he is a good finisher when he’s confident. His numbers on shots and xG in that position are very good, that’s clearly where he’s most effective and so you want him as close to goal as possible. I think there’s a feeling that he’ll have to play as a number 9 but the question is how that works with Gakpo as well, whether they can play there together, or share the role with one playing one week and the another the next, or if it means Gakpo moving out to the left.
I think Klopp went on record as saying that the language barrier has been an issue for Nunez. He hadn’t taken to English as they might’ve hoped, unlike, for example, Luis Diaz. I think that has affected Nunez’s integration, so they’ll hope he’s made strides on that ahead of pre-season. It does make a big difference, especially with a manager like Jurgen Klopp, who has a very specific way of doing things getting his team to play – it’s not easy to grasp the intricacies of that if you’re not up to speed with the language. Still, I think the club still has a lot of faith in him, and it’s been a key part of the plan to have someone like him who can offer something a bit different up front, offering more of a presence than Firmino, stretching the play a bit more and getting in behind. I’m told there’s still a lot of faith he can do that, even if he does have to earn his place against a lot of competition. There’s certainly no major worries from Liverpool, more a desire to help him improve.
Liverpool have had recent language issues as well with Takumi Minamino, who came in just before the pandemic, and then the timing of that obviously affected his ability to settle. There was also talk of Naby Keita having some problems in that regard, though I asked someone at Liverpool about that and was told that he could hold a conversation, it wasn’t as bad as others had made out. I think Keita’s main problem was getting that rhythm going, with injuries disrupting him and stopping him getting a run in the team that would’ve nailed down his place. With Nunez, I think it’s been more pronounced.
Thoughts on Mohamed Salah and Steven Gerrard’s Saudi links
I’m aware there’s been some inevitable noise about clubs in Saudi Arabia and Mohamed Salah, but I’ve not heard anything concrete on that and I think it would clearly be a bad time for Liverpool to sell. Yes, he’s 31 now but he signed a new contract last summer and it’s still clear he’s one of the few world class players in this Liverpool squad.
If you look at the forward options in particular, there’s a lot of potential in the likes of Gakpo, but there isn’t proven world class talent like Salah now that Sadio Mane’s gone. Elsewhere in the squad, it probably isn’t filled with as much world class talent as it was a few years ago, but Salah is unarguably in that bracket, along with Alisson and maybe Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk. If Salah were to leave, it would be a big blow and really tough for Liverpool to try to deal with.
I don’t think anything’s going to happen this summer, even if we do continue to see plenty of transfer rumours involving Saudi clubs, who clearly have big plans, but I don’t think Liverpool would even contemplate Salah leaving this summer. I also don’t think Salah is looking to leave Liverpool now. Still, if Saudi do keep trying to expand their empire, then I can see them viewing Salah, a prominent figure in world football, as a massive signing for them – you’d imagine that would be high on their agenda. So I think there might be a chance of a future move, from speaking to people in Egypt in particular, but definitely not this summer. He still has the motivation to play at the highest level, winning the Champions League, breaking records, competing for the Ballon d’Or, and that sort of thing. That’s what he lives for, and I think there’s more to come from him at the centre of the European game.
Another Liverpool figure being linked with Saudi Arabia is Steven Gerrard, but it looks like that’s now off the table. Having been touted in the past as a future Liverpool manager, I think he’s got to pick his next job very, very carefully. I wouldn’t say it’s make or break for him just yet, but it’s an important stage in his career and I don’t think Saudi Arabia would be the right path for him right now.
As a Liverpool correspondent, I’ve obviously got a vested interest in seeing him do well, but I do think he deserves another chance after his Aston Villa experience. He didn’t get what he wanted from that team, but I wouldn’t write him off just yet. He didn’t get a lot of time, I think it was less than a year, so I think it would be harsh to judge him on that, especially when there was initial promise when he first took over. He showed he can organise a team, he attracted some big signings like Philippe Coutinho, and Diego Carlos, let’s not forget, who was unlucky to get a serious injury not long after he joined, and only played once Gerrard was no longer at the club.
It’s also worth remembering that the work Gerrard did at Rangers was hugely impressive – he toppled a dominant Celtic side, getting Rangers back to where they wanted to be, playing well in the Champions League and mixing it up a bit tactically – he deserves huge credit for that. But, there’s no doubt he’s in a situation now where he’s unlikely to get a Premier League job next, so he needs to pick his next club very carefully. I think Sheffield Wednesday have been linked and Leeds had an interest at some stage too.
While I think Saudi would be the wrong move at this stage, he could perhaps do well to try a challenge abroad, and I’m aware there’s been interest in him from clubs in Turkey. Wherever he goes, he needs to know he’s going to get a good chance and a fair backing, not somewhere where he’s going to find himself under huge pressure if he loses a few games in a row.
As someone who’s worked closely with Gerrard, speaking to him several times and covering his career as both a player and a coach, I still firmly believe the potential is there for him to be a very good manager. I don’t think he’ll be out of work for much longer, and I’d like to see him in the Championship, with a big club like Leeds, Norwich or Sheffield Wednesday, where there’s plenty of expectation, but also an opportunity to build something.
He and Jurgen Klopp used to live in the same area of Formby, and they’ve got a good relationship. There was a nice moment just before the Champions League final in 2022 when they met up in a local pub for a drink together, just chewing the fat, and I know they’re still definitely in touch. Gerrard’s gone on record as saying Klopp’s always someone who’ll pick up the phone to him any time, and he’s got a good relationship with Alex Inglethorpe at the academy – he gave him his chance a few years back to manage the Under-18s – he’s someone he speaks to a lot. He’s certainly not out of sight or out of mind at Liverpool, he’s still part of the family, playing in Legends games and I think he was recently at a promotional event in Ireland.
Obviously I don’t know if he’ll be Liverpool manager one day, but the strong relationship is still there, not least with Jurgen Klopp. Let’s see what he can do next in what is likely to be an important step for him in management.