Salah Carvalho Werner and more

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For Fabio Carvalho, the move to Hull City, which is set to be finalised this week, represents a clear indication of how things haven’t gone to plan over the past 18 months or so.

When he joined Liverpool, he did so as the outstanding young player in the Championship, a player tipped for international honours and a big future at Anfield.

Now, he finds himself back at square one, in many respects. It hasn’t worked out for him on Merseyside, it didn’t go much better for him over in Germany with RB Leipzig, and his stock has undoubtedly fallen.

With that in mind, then, it is vital that he first and foremost finds a way to get into the Hull side and play some games, and that once he does that, he shows the talent which convinced Liverpool (and many other clubs) that he was worth looking at.

The talent is there, for sure. Carvalho’s a lovely footballer, tidy and technically accomplished, with a good final pass and the ability to score goals, but he needs to develop in terms of involving himself in all aspects of the game, staying engaged and involved and not drifting to the fringes, which was a criticism during his (rather limited) appearances at Anfield.

It’s hard to imagine that he has a long-term future at Liverpool, to be perfectly honest, but that doesn’t mean he can’t, or won’t, have a good career. But he needs this spell to go well.

I’d be amazed if Liverpool looked to bring in a forward in this window. Of course Mohamed Salah is a miss, as is Wataru Endo in midfield, but they still have four high quality attacking options available, with the possibility of using Harvey Elliott and/or Dominik Szoboszlai off the right flank too, if required.

Liverpool, generally, do not go for such short-termism in their recruitment – and when they have done (Arthur Melo, for example) it tends not to work. They think about the bigger picture, not plugging two-week gaps.

It’s no surprise to see tons of players linked with Liverpool. It’s the price on the ticket for such a big club, that their name is thrown in whenever a prospect emerges or talk of a transfer starts to ramp up.

Ignoring the specific names for a second, the pertinent question is whether Liverpool will look to sign a forward player in the…