Liverpool: Two potential knock-on effects of Serge Gnabry joining as rumours emerge

According to Sky Sport reporter Florian Plettenberg, Liverpool are interested in signing Germany international Serge Gnabry, despite recently bringing in Luis Diaz for £35 million.

Liverpool have arguably one of the best attacking lineups in Europe, with Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino, Diogo Jota and now Diaz all deadly when on form – this season, the former three have scored 37 goals in the league between them.

However, with Salah’s contract set to be up next summer and no breakthrough on the horizon when it comes to a new deal, despite the winger claiming he’d like to remain at Anfield, it appears that Jurgen Klopp is looking to the future.

But what could signing Gnabry mean for Liverpool going forward?

Salah replacement identified?

With Liverpool, a lot of their success has come from playing quick football which puts the opposition on the back foot, whether that be through pressing – they’ve registered the most successful pressures in the league – or the way their forwards are so clinical in front of goal, as they rank second for goals per shots taken (as per FBRef).

Therefore, if Klopp is looking to add some depth to his attacking options and get someone in and ready to go for when Salah leaves, they could do much worse than Serge Gnabry, who has 10 league goals, and more importantly, is a willing dribbler of the ball – averaging 0.2 more per game than Salah is this season, via WhoScored.

Gnabry would arrive with a winner’s mentality having picked up 16 pieces of silverware throughout his career – something which is crucial at Liverpool given their recent successes under Klopp. He’s also just 26 years old, so therefore a lot younger than Salah. And with the pull of a fellow German in Klopp at the helm, he may not be able to turn down such a move.

Potential concerns for promising youngster

New and big-name signings can come at a cost, though, and that is usually the case for a youngster making their way through the ranks. In that sense, nobody is currently doing better at Liverpool than Harvey Elliott, who was signed as a 16-year-old in the summer of 2019.

Elliott had started three league games in a row under Klopp this season before he was struck down with a major injury against Leeds United, but he managed to make his comeback at the weekend in the FA Cup, netting his first-ever Liverpool goal in the process.

But given where he is in the pecking order, the signing of Gnabry could spell a lot of trouble for Elliott given that the German is a full international, has experience winning silverware and is a regular for a Bayern Munich side dominating the Bundesliga once again.

The only way that this signing could not prove to be a block in the road for Elliott would be if someone else was sold such as Salah or Mane, which doesn’t appear to be on the cards despite their expiring deals. And considering his potential, a far more worrying scenario for Liverpool fans in the long term could be if Elliott felt he was not wanted or rated highly enough by the club and wanted to move.

Given Gnabry’s flexibility when it comes to playing in a variety of different positions, he could instantly be a hit for Klopp and his stats are almost night and day compared to Elliott (via WhoScored), but with age firmly on the youngster’s side, it’s a fine balancing act Liverpool have on their hands if they were to bring the former Arsenal man in.

In other news: ‘Been pressuring the club’ – Duncan Castles drops record-breaking LFC claim on Mo Salah