Paul Merson has advised Arne Slot to leave one of Liverpool’s most impressive players of the season so far out of the Reds’ starting line-up against Wolves on Saturday.
The Dutchman has been presented with a pleasant selection headache for the trip to Molineux, with his six senior forwards scoring eight goals between them in the past week alone.
Two of those came from Luis Diaz, who’s currently our top scorer with five for the campaign, but in his weekly Premier League predictions column for Sportskeeda, the Sky Sports pundit couldn’t find a place for the Colombian in his preferred attacking composition.
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Merson wrote: “In terms of forwards, they are blessed in that department. Not only will they score a lot of goals, but they will spread it out among themselves over the course of the season.
“This can also be a headache for Arne Slot and sometimes it’s not a good thing because he has to keep all of them happy with playing time.
“I’d personally go with Cody Gakpo alongside Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah for this game. I think Gakpo is playing with a lot of confidence and he just gives you something more than the other options.”
Any manager in world football would love to have the dilemma that Slot is facing when it comes to picking his team for Liverpool’s visit to Molineux on Saturday.
It seems incomprehensible that Diaz would be left out, having begun the season in such prolific form and been given a breather for the Carabao Cup win over West Ham in midweek.
However, Gakpo’s two-goal cameo off the bench in that game would make it hard for him to be omitted either, and the Dutchman was outstanding in the recent Champions League clash away to AC Milan.
It’s not the only big call facing Slot in terms of selecting which forwards to start. Diogo Jota also netted twice on Wednesday and doesn’t deserve to be dropped; and while Salah will almost certainly be picked on the right, that’s no indictment of Federico Chiesa, who impressed on his full Liverpool debut a couple of nights ago.
The warning for Wolves is that, even if some of those players will be left on the bench for starters, they’re more than capable of making an impact if brought on, as the Egyptian demonstrated against West Ham. Good luck picking the team for tomorrow, Arne!
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