Liverpool won at the weekend, but we have seen several times already this season that wins can prove to be false dawns as Arne Slot looks to restore consistency to his side.

Goals from Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo snipped away the shocking run of form that had led to nine defeats from 12 in all competitions, six from seven in the Premier League, three from four at Anfield.

It beggars belief, so diametrically opposed is Slot’s second-season system from the slick and stylish outfit that defied everyone to romp to the league title last season, sealing the deal less than a year after Jurgen Klopp raised the microphone and waved goodbye to the red half of Merseyside.

Liverpool must stay grounded, as Slot said in his post-match interview. There is a long way to go.

One of the most curious aspects of the Reds’ victory was the boss’s call to drop Mohamed Salah. This glimpse into a brand new world has also played into rumours that FSG are looking to sign a wide forward in 2026.

Liverpool planning to replace Salah

Salah did not make it off the bench at the London Stadium, the first time the Egyptian has been an unused substitute in the Premier League since 2019/20, with Klopp’s title-winning campaign effectively wrapped up when the Reds played out a 0-0 draw in the Merseyside derby.

Last season, he was the best player in the Premier League. But that herculean effort has depleted the veteran’s resources, and he is struggling this year.

Goals scored

0.77

0.34

Assists

0.48

0.17

Shots taken

3.23

2.43

Shot-creating actions

4.51

3.27

Touches (att pen)

9.50

6.21

Pass completion (%)

70.6

68.1

Progressive passes

3.84

4.19

Progressive carries

4.14

3.94

Successful take-ons

1.55

0.92

Ball recoveries

2.70

2.77

As you can see, there’s been an undeniable drop-off. Liverpool’s wider crew have all slipped across the decking, but time is not on the 33-year-old Salah’s side.

To try and find a like-for-like replacement would be a fruitless task. What Liverpool need instead is a sharp and athletic winger with a flair for goal. Someone like Sadio Mane, perhaps (hardly an easy endeavour in itself).

Well, as per Foot Mercato, Liverpool have opened talks with rivals Everton for one of their star forwards, Iliman Ndiaye.

The versatile Ndiaye, 25, is both athletic and potent in the final third. Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur are also interested, and the Toffees would be looking to bank around £70m for their star man.

What Iliman Nidaye would offer Liverpool

Woah. From Everton to Liverpool? Blue to red? Nonsense, right?

It’s certainly unlikely, but Liverpool have held an interest in Jarrad Branthwaite for a while now, and Everton explored a move for Ben Doak in the summer before he signed for Bournemouth.

And Ndiaye would be worth the stress. Hailed for having “magic in his boots” by Everton writer Lyndon Lloyd, he ranks among the top 5% of positional peers in the Premier League for successful take-ons and tackles won, and the top 1% for ball recoveries per 90 (as per FBref).

Presenter Jamie O’Hara has even gone as far as to claim that the Senegalese is “one of the best players in the Premier League”.

Ndiaye shares a homeland with Liverpool icon Mane, but they have more in common than merely nationality. The Everton winger, who can play across the frontline, is electric on the ball, combative when against the flow of play and devastating in the box.

Though he’s spent most of his time on the right wing this season, Ndiaye is probably a left-sided forward at heart. Considering this, there’s a good chance Ndiaye would take Cody Gakpo’s starting berth from him at Anfield, with a more protean threat than the clinical Dutchman.

The African talent was Everton’s top scorer last season with 11 goals in all competitions, and that trend has not been bucked this year, Ndiaye with four goals and an assist across 13 games.

When Mane moved from Southampton to Liverpool for around £35m in 2016, he levelled up. Ndiaye could follow his countryman in this regard, having added a range of instruments to his toolbox in recent years and in an up-and-down Everton team.

Liverpool perhaps made a mistake in failing to replace Luis Diaz with a like-for-like successor this summer, and the ramifications have been felt through Gakpo’s somewhat limited attacking approach. He scored and assisted against West Ham at the weekend, but lacked the kind of dynamism that Liverpool’s previous left-sided wingers have offered.

Mane is certainly one of them, probably the cream of the crop. It would be unfair to expect Gakpo to play such a role, but if Ndiaye were signed, Slot would have a player who could match the Netherlands star’s output while bringing so much energy and enthusiasm to the role too.

Mane, now 34 and playing in Saudi Arabia, was once one of the world’s finest forwards, deadly across so many years at Anfield and blending clinical goalscoring with physicality and an unflappable mentality.

One scout even hailed Ndiaye as being “Mane all over again”, and given this is a proven formula in the English top flight, it’s surely one FSG will be enticed in completing.

With the greatest respect to West Ham, tougher tests lie ahead for the Anfield side, whose win at Eintracht Frankfurt in August preceded defeat at Brentford. The elation over that remarkable victory over Real Madrid had crumbled after the triad of recent losses.

Liverpool are nothing if not inconsistent this season, but that can change. It has to change. Liverpool need balance and security, but they also need to be bold and courageous, offering more flair than the likes of Gakpo have been providing.

And what could be more bold than signing a rival in Ndiaye, who would elevate the skill in Slot’s team and also balance the squad’s slanting spirit level.

Shades of Thiago: "Incredible" star had his best game in a Liverpool shirt

This Liverpool star could become the new Thiago at Anfield after his best Premier League showing for the club.

ByDan Emery Nov 30, 2025

He had given signs of ability with the bat in the past, but the back-to-back knocks against India and UAE at the Asia Cup signals a transformation of sorts for Shaheen Afridi

Shashank Kishore18-Sep-2025Shaheen Shah Afridi always had the batting chops. Until recently, they appeared only in flashes, like at the PSL 2023 final.That night in Lahore, Afridi wasn’t even padded up when Sikandar Raza was dismissed in the 15th over. Yet, he somehow stopped David Wiese from crossing over the boundary rope and beat him to the crease at No. 7 to unleash one of the most electrifying death-over onslaughts in recent memory.Every one of his 44 runs, off just 15 balls, proved crucial as Lahore Qalandars pulled off a one-run thriller in what was one of the all-time great T20 finals.Related

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On Wednesday at the Asia Cup, the stakes were just as high. Pakistan were in knockout territory after Sunday’s seven-wicket drubbing at the hands of India. Afridi himself contributed a T20I best – an unbeaten 16-ball 33 – to revive a faltering innings, and give the bowlers something to defend. The knock barely got its due, though, amid India’s clinical chase and the handshakes-that-weren’t chaos that followed.But it’s unlikely to have escaped coach Mike Hesson. Because, all through that brief innings, there were enough signs that Afridi’s hitting was a weapon Pakistan could increasingly rely on.Sure, there was an element of pre-meditation to his game, but his clean swing, tact in targeting the shorter boundary, and holding his shape to deliveries dug in, especially in the death overs by Hardik Pandya, were all attributes of someone who has spent considerable time working on his craft.If Sunday’s knock was a glimpse of his ability, Wednesday’s against UAE was a reinforcement of Afridi’s batting chops under pressure. With so much happening around the team, there’s no telling what a loss to a lower-ranked, unfancied opponent could have done to the team. And at 110 for 7, with 19 balls still left in the innings, that threat was real.ESPNcricinfo LtdAfridi had seen first-hand the effects a below-par target to defend in the face of dew can have for bowlers, when Abhishek Sharma took all of two deliveries against him to announce himself. UAE openers Muhammad Waseem and Alishan Sharafu may not be Abhishek, but in a knockout game, all it takes is one innings to trigger a wave of confidence.It’s likely Afridi wasn’t thinking of a score in mind as much as he was just reacting to what was thrown at him. He ended up biffing 29 off 14 balls, much of it constructed during the course of a telling 20th over, where he turned into the other Afridi, Shahid. The result was two sixes and a four in an 18-run over that lifted Pakistan to 146, when they looked like finishing with 125.If the first six was all about backing away and swinging cleanly to a yorker that went wrong, the second was pure wrist-work mastery as he flicked the ball up and over deep-backward square-leg.The awareness of the bowler wanting to shorten his length as a consequence of being picked away with two full deliveries helped Afridi pocket a boundary as he got inside the line to help it along behind square. As Afridi walked off, he knew, and Pakistan knew, they may have just given themselves enough to defend.2:18

Wasim Jaffer: ‘Pakistan’s batting not convincing at all’

Before the Asia Cup, Afridi had batted 30 times in T20Is for a modest return of 188 runs. Two games into the tournament, he has taken that tally to 250 in 32 innings.The foundations of his new-found batting verve was established at the PSL. From PSL 2018 until the end of PSL 2022, Afridi had hit just two sixes, with a highest of 12. In the last three editions, he has hit 24 sixes – further proof of his improved hitting abilities.Ironically, it may have been a knee injury in 2022 – one that caused much uproar because of the way his rehab was managed – that may have been the turning point. The lengthy rehab phase, where he couldn’t bowl much, allowed him to bat more than he had ever done. And the gains are increasingly evident.It feels strange to talk of Afridi and not talk of his bowling impact or the late banana inswing of the kind that takes Wasim Akram back to his heyday. But it’s actually his batting, despite that wicket of Waseem with some of that late tail, albeit off an inside edge, that has single-handedly kept Pakistan alive in the Asia Cup.While the new-found dimension lends much depth to a brittle batting line-up, Pakistan will do well to ensure Afridi doesn’t end up carrying more than he can manage amid soaring expectation that will now invariably accompany him to the crease every single time.

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