Danny Murphy has written in The Daily Mail that Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has a lot of fat to trim from his squad in the summer.
It’s been a disastrous defence of their Premier League title for the Reds, who are 28 points behind runaway leaders Manchester City.
A lot of Liverpool’s problem this season has centered around the crisis of centre-back options, with Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez being sidelined for much of the campaign.
To make matters worse, Klopp’s side might not even gain qualification to the Champions League next term.
The 2019 champions are still in the competition and gearing up for a quarter-final draw after the midweek win over Leipzig in Hungary, but an eight-point gap from fourth-placed Chelsea indicates that Liverpool may have to win the tournament once again to guarantee their presence next term.
Dropping out of the Champions League is a very costly price to pay financially and Murphy has listed the players who Klopp and Michael Edwards should sacrifice for the sake of their transfer budget – including Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who cost £40 million in 2017.
He said: “Squad players such as Takumi Minamino, Shaqiri, Divock Origi and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain may have to be sacrificed to free up funds. So be it. Liverpool badly need a couple of players to make the team better, not six rarely-used squad members.”
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