As his contract ticks down towards its conclusion, it is becoming more and more clear that Adam Lallana will not be a Liverpool player for much longer.
For all his reliability when called upon, the man wants regular first team football, which Liverpool aren't able nor prepared to give him.
As much as he is far from a first team regular, however, he has played his part this season. He's featured, at some stage, in 13 of his side's 41 matches, so someone will have to pick up the slack as and when he heads off to pastures new.
Whether that's a new signing or someone promoted from within remains to be seen, but we've had a look at six names that Liverpool could look to to replace the midfielder.
Naby Keita
To say Keita's Liverpool career has flatlined would be harsh, but it would be equally wide of the mark to say he has lived up to the hype surrounding him when he finally arrived in the summer of 2018. There's a combination of factors contributing to that: the immense pressure that was placed on him after a year of build-up, a smattering of injuries, and intense competition for places chief among them.
There is no doubt, in any case, that he several more gears to go through after managing just over 800 minutes of action so far this season, and it's likely Jurgen Klopp will give him the chance to shoulder that responsibility before looking to the transfer market and putting another obstacle in his way.
The Guinean is still only 24 and has time on his side with regards to making a first-team spot his own; Lallana's departure easing up the competition might just be the catalyst for that.
Weston McKennie
Something concrete to calm the waters before we go cannonballing into some wild speculation, 90min understands that Schalke's American prospect McKennie is a target of Liverpool's ahead of the summer window.
He's clearly a very different player from Lallana, but his defensive instincts mean he offers some much-needed natural cover for Fabinho, bringing an equilibrium to Klopp's effective, if slightly off-balance, midfield ranks.
The additional cover he is capable of offering at centre-back sets him up as a potentially invaluable utility man, and perhaps even kills two birds with one stone, negating the necessity of replacing either Dejan Lovren or Joel Matip should one of those two also depart.
Marko Grujic
It's difficult not to feel sorry for Serbian midfielder Marko Grujic. He has, to put it conservatively, absolutely smashed it while out on loan at Hertha Berlin, making himself a key player for the Bundesliga side and re-establishing a reputation as a very exciting midfield talent.
Despite his development, however, the tandem trajectory of the Liverpool team means his chances of making it at Anfield remain precariously slim. He should be one of the names in Klopp's mind as he ponders a fresh face for his ranks over the summer, but it remains to be seen whether Grujic, who turns 24 in April, will be content to fight for scraps after 18 months of steady first-team football in Germany.
Mario Gotze
Robin Gosens
A left-field option we've really just thrown in out of the blue because it makes a degree of sense at face value, Goosens is something different to anything else on this list. The role he has thrived in at Atalanta of late can best be described as an incredibly high wing-back, but in the past he has played on the wing, in a traditional left-back role, and at central midfield.
Having scored eight times and registered four assists in 25 appearances this season, his attacking capabilities are evident. There's also a big check mark next to his energy and physicality, while his versatility means he could feasibly cover any of the three positions down the left hand side.
He likely wouldn't come cheap and, granted, is another completely different player to Lallana, but in terms of his value within the squad, the 26-year-old would be a smart addition.
Curtis Jones
The man Liverpool fans are desperate to see involved more than anyone else, Jones' performances in the cups this season have set him up as a real star of the future, and it seems inevitable that he'll be thrown into the first team in the league in the very near future.
It seems a bit soon to be expecting that to come next season, but such has been the story of his career so far; surprising us all with unpredictably huge strides forward in his development.
If it's deemed that no midfield signing is necessary this summer, then Jones' incredible ascent will have had its part to play in that - and he'll be ready to do his bit.
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Source : 90min
