Arne Slot is about to unleash $270M Liverpool plan thanks to Mohamed Salah

Liverpool spent big in the summer but is yet to see anything like the full extent of the potential — now, though, that could be about to change, starting with Spurs this weekend

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot is trying to keep the team's momentum going(Image: Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Mohamed Salah might only be gone for a few weeks — rather than forever, as he seemed to hint in that explosive interview at Leeds — but Liverpool will need to find a way of coping without him.

Given his recent form and that he hasn't always been playing anyway, that might sound simple, but there are not loads of other options for Arne Slot. Though the Dutchman took Salah out of the team for three successive games leading up to his Elland Road outburst, the irony was, he would almost certainly have started the next two games had he kept quiet.

Cody Gakpo is injured and Federico Chiesa isn't really in contention to start, so Liverpool's attacking options are limited. Salah, now he is with Egypt for a spell, has only seen them decrease even further.

With some favorable-looking matches coming up, however, at least on paper, now is the time for Liverpool to climb up the Premier League standings.

With an impressive couple of wins against Inter Milan and Brighton, things are looking up again. And even without Salah, there is a formula emerging for success.

Whether or not Dominik Szoboszlai is fit enough to start at Spurs on Saturday, Liverpool should have the option of playing a front two ahead of a more solid midfield.

Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike haven't played much together for Liverpool... yet(Image: Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Hugo Ekitike should enjoy the extra space in behind that Tottenham could leave, while Florian Wirtz, floating inside from the left wing, has shown his best stuff for Liverpool to date in that role.

Playing a kind of 4-4-2 diamond seemingly gets the best out of those two, and seemingly the in-form Curtis Jones too. And with Alexander Isak an option again, Slot could look to unleash him and Ekitike together as a pair.

Signed for a combined sum of around $270M in the summer, the idea that Liverpool didn't need both players or that there was not some kind of plan in place for how they would fit together is ludicrous.

Slot lost some key attacking puzzle pieces and they needed to be replaced, with two quality options in each role required. If one of Isak or Ekitike doesn't start, the other can come off the bench.

With Salah out and Gakpo injured, though, we might now be about to see what the plan is to field them both together. After all, last summer's expenditure was with one eye on the longer term — whenever that proves to be — when Salah moves on permanently.

Games away at a Spurs team in a poor run of form and then at home to struggling Wolves and newly-promoted Leeds should be exactly the kind of fixtures where that extra attacking quality is required to find a breakthrough.

And in Ekitike and Isak, there is a top partnership ready to be unleashed. Neither has shown their full potential yet — Isak, especially, needs to show a greater level of sharpness — but that they have elite-level capabilities is beyond doubt.

With Salah out of the equation, Liverpool could be set to offer a hint of what the long-term future looks like without him. It will then be up to the Egyptian to force his way back in.