‘I don’t think Liverpool would look at Ollie Watkins, a striker isn’t a pressing issue for them – it’s Arsenal who need one’ Former Reds star explains why his old club don’t need an out-and-out forward this summer

Liverpool currently sit eight points clear at the top of the Premier League, despite often not playing with a conventional striker this season.

Luis Diaz has often fulfilled a central role, with Mo Salah and Cody Gakpo on the flanks, but the Reds have scored 10 more goals than any other side in the league this season.

While Darwin Nunez is a more orthodox centre-forward, the Uruguayan hasn’t always found the net regularly and missed with the goal at his mercy at Aston Villa in midweek, with some fans calling for the club to sign a striker this summer.

Former Liverpool star not so certain

Stan Collymore scored 35 goals in two seasons for Liverpool between 1995 and 1997, and isn’t so sure that striking options are out there to strengthen an already impressive Reds attack.

“If you accept that Erling Haaland is going to stay at Man City for quite some time to come and so is Kylian Mbappe at Real Madrid, there aren’t lots of great strikers around,” he told FourFourTwo.

“Nico Williams has been mooted as Arsenal’s top target in the summer, he’s a very good winger, he’s extraordinarily quick, he’s got a lot of tricks and he’s direct, but really Arsenal need a striker, I don’t think they need a wide man.

“In terms of strikers, you were hoping that someone like Evan Ferguson would develop at Brighton, but he’s plateaued and gone to West Ham. If Brighton thought he was developing in the way they expected he would, he would have stayed there.”

Also a former Aston Villa player and lifelong fan of the West Midlands club, Collymore has seen one name linked with Liverpool in recent weeks.

“If you’re looking around at goalscorers that are doing the business here and now, you’re looking at Ollie Watkins at Villa, but I just don’t think at this stage and age that he’s a player Liverpool would look at,” he said, speaking in association with William Hill Vegas.

“So I think at the moment Liverpool will just hold tight and see what happens in terms of the goals output, whether Mo Salah will stay, which obviously will massively increase their goals if he does.

“If Salah does stay, there are rumours of Luis Diaz going, but they’ve got Gakpo and Nunez still.

“I do think Liverpool then could afford to look for a wide forward to bring in that adds goals rather than an out-and-out striker, so it’s not a pressing issue yet.”