With Liverpool now having been knocked out of the Champions League and the domestic cups, and the Premier League title being not far off confirmed, there is going to need to be news before long on the futures of Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Luis Diaz (with 13 goals this season) has never been particularly prolific and Diogo Jota (eight) and Darwin Nunez (seven) have scored just 15 times between them this year.

Cody Gakpo has added a respectable 16 strikes but that pales into insigificance compared to Salah — 51 per cent of Liverpool's goals this season have been scored by him.

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To take just one example, Liverpool would have dropped at least two points against lowly Southampton this season were it not for Salah's late heroics at St Mary's.

More often than not, the Egyptian has been the man to step up when required, even if that has sometimes been from the penalty spot.

It is pointless working out where Liverpool would be in the Premier League table without Salah's goals and assists given that it is impossible for any team to play a whole season with only 10 men.

If this is what life looks like without Salah — the evidence of the season as a whole far outweighing the last few days in terms of his true value — then Liverpool simply cannot countenance it.

In the Premier League, for instance, Salah has 27 goals — three times the next player on the list (Diaz, with nine)