Jeremie Frimpong became one of Liverpool's first summer signing sessions after his arrival from Bayer Leverkusen and it has been confirmed that Mo Salah had a crucial part to play in a deal
Liverpool – head coach Arne Slot has revealed that there are countless reasons why the Reds Jeremie Frimpong signed – and one of them is to replace Mo Salah during Africa Cup of Nations.
The Reds landed Jeremie Frimpong for £ 29 million from Bayer Leverkusen after the departure of right back Trent Alexander-Arnold. Many believe that the Dutch Nutsman is to challenge Conor Bradley for the full-back role, but Slot believes that he has more versatility.
That will help when Egypt Salah goes to Morocco for the Africa Cup of Nations that runs from December 21 to January 18 and could see him missing six Premier League matches.
Slot said: “We certainly thought about that. We brought Jeremie Frimpong in because we think he can play as the right full-back, but I also think and feel that he can play like a right winger.
“We, we, have thought about the fact that we are going to miss Mo, I think I think as a maximum for six games – but that is quite a lot in the Premier League, especially when you see how well he did last season.
“Signing Jeremie Frimpong was for several reasons, but one of them was that he could replace Mo if Mo is not there. There are other options for me to replace Mo – but Jeremie is definitely one of them.”
Frimpong starts tomorrow on the right against Crystal Palace with Bradley absent due to injury. It is expected that some of their other summer identities will also be involved.
Hugo Ekitike, Florian Wirtz and Milos Kerkez will all be in the team in Wembley. But a man who will not come to them is Alexander Isak – who, despite his transfer search, remains a lot in Newcastle.
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Slot was silent about a movement, but suggested that Liverpool was still active in the market. He said: “I think we think, we already have a lot of attacking power in our team as I think of Cody Gakpo, Federico Chiesa, Hugo Ekitike, Mo Salah, Jeremie Frimpong, who can play as a right-wing-wing player, and Florian Wirtz, who can play as a left-winger.
“I already have the feeling that I have many attacking options in my current team. But as always, as a club we always look at the opportunities in the market – but that can also be in midfield or in the latter rule.”