Arne Slot makes Mohamed Salah transfer admission as big Liverpool worry addressed

Arne Slot has admitted he has planned for Mohamed Salah's absence with Liverpool’s transfers this season, while playing down concerns over the Reds' attacking options.

Having finished last season as the Premier League’s top scorer and top of the pile for assists, the chances of Salah repeating the feat this season are severely hit by the fact he will be missing midway through the campaign.

Salah is set to be away at the Africa Cup of Nations, which runs from December 21 to January 18. Should Egypt make it all the way to the final, the 33-year-old would miss six Premier League games, including a crucial clash against Arsenal.

Slot has planned ahead, though, with the Liverpool boss having already signed a potential replacement for Salah while he’s away - Jeremie Frimpong.

Although the former Bayer Leverkusen star has been brought to Anfield primarily as competition for Conor Bradley at right-back, he could also double up as cover for Salah. Frimpong already regularly plays as a winger for the Netherlands, and has featured in a more advanced position during preseason.

“Yes, we definitely thought about that, and we brought in Jeremie Frimpong because we thought he can play as a right-fullback, but also as a right-winger,” Slot said in his press conference on Friday.

“So yes, we did think about the fact that we’re going to miss Mo I think as a maximum of six games, but that’s quite a lot in the Premier League, especially if you see how well he did last season.

“Signing Jeremie Frimpong was for multiple reasons, but one of them was also that he could replace Mo if Mo is not there, but there are other options to replace Mo with as well, but Jeremie’s definitely one of them.”

Despite the added bonus Frimpong brings, there are concerns among some supporters about the attacking options Liverpool has with just a week to go until its title defense gets underway against Bournemouth.

With Darwin Nunez set to follow Luis Diaz out of the exit door, the Reds will be left with Salah, Cody Gakpo, Hugo Ekitike, and Federico Chiesa as their only out-and-out forwards, and there is still a chance the latter of that quartet could move on this summer.

Alexander Isak continues to be linked with a move to Anfield, while Rio Ngumoha has emerged as a potential first-team option after impressing so much in pre-season, but Slot isn’t worrying about his options up top.

“I think, we think, we already have a lot of attacking power in our team, so when I think about Cody Gakpo, Federico Chiesa, Hugo Ekitike, Mo Salah, Jeremie Frimpong who can play as a right-winger, Florian Wirtz who can play as a left-winger, so I already feel I have a lot of attacking options in my current squad,” Slot said.

“But as always as a club, we are always looking at the chances in the market, but that can also be in the midfield or in the last line.”

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