Liverpool ‘edge closer’ as £40m PL forward ‘asks to leave’

Liverpool are reportedly ‘edging closer’ to the £40million signing of Ismaila Sarr, with the Watford forward ‘asking to leave’.

Sarr has been on Jurgen Klopp’s radar for some time and he has now been given a boost in his bid to sign the Senegalese forward.

TransferMarketWeb claim Liverpool are readying a £40million offer for Sarr, who is aware of the interest and has asked his parent club for permission to speak to the Reds.

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Liverpool have also been linked with a move for West Ham star Jarrod Bowen this summer as Klopp looks to bolster his forward line.

Sarr was in fine form on his return to Premier League football, proving to be more than a handful for Matt Target as he scored in a 3-2 win for Watford over Aston Villa.

It’s thought that Liverpool’s ability to sign a new forward will depend on their ability to ship out one or both of Divock Origi and Xherdan Shaqiri.

Meanwhile, John Barnes claims Klopp needs to be ruthless in his team selection to get the best out of Mohamed Salah.

He said: “I’ve always said Firmino is my favourite player of the front three.

“Salah scores goals and Mane does what he does, but Firmino’s the one for me who makes the team tick, so I would always have him.

“So to say that Jota should play instead of the front three, I don’t necessarily feel that’s the case.

“You could actually put him in one of the midfield three, because there are times when, depending on the other two midfield players, that Jota could really add some great strength and he’s played attacking midfield in the past.

“But I don’t feel that Jota should play instead of Firmino. In fact, I think Firmino is one of our most-important players and the reason why Salah scores as many goals as he is; as a withdrawn centre-forward, between himself and Mane, it give them those inward running angles to score goals.

“So I don’t necessarily feel that the fact that he (Firmino) doesn’t score as many goals is not a beneficial deliverable as he’s providing so much more than that.”