The groundbreaking £85m dream summer signing who could make Liverpool huge Champions League favourites

Liverpool upset the odds to win the Premier League with virtually the same squad that finished nine points adrift of Manchester City last season, meaning they’re now perfectly poised Europe’s most aggressive club this summer transfer

Slot's masterful system combined with an attack that's still higher quality than most opponents they come up against in the Premier League has been enough for the Reds to stroll to a deserved title and they’ve been the third or fourth best team in Europe this season.

However, there has been a noticeable gap to at least PSG and Barcelona laid bare in the round of 16 - the Parisians out-shot Liverpool (on target) 18-4 over 210 minutes as the Red’s rearguard action was what kept them alive all the way to penalties in that fixture. Meanwhile further knockout defeats in the League Cup and FA Cup have shown this group still has a way to go to emulate the great Manchester treble-winning sides in recent English football history.

This isn't a hatchet job on Liverpool’s achievements this campaign, far from it. Rather it’s a reality check that a second Premier League title in the club’s history is simply the starting point for a squad that had the fifth-lowest net spend in the league this season.

And that means now Slot can let his shopping list run wild, eyeing a potential £100 million upgrade to central defence, an oven-ready Trent Alexander-Arnold replacement in Jeremie Frimpong and reinforcements to the attack that could - maybe even should - be headlined by Rodrygo who’s been put up for sale by Real Madrid.

Rodrygo can fire Liverpool to Champions League glory - and more

Four minutes into Rodrygo’s home Champions League debut for Real Madrid, Rodrygo controlled an awkward rising ball at chest-height, smartly cut inside to dodge a lunging tackle then fizzed an exquisite shot far into the bottom corner of Galatasaray’s past a helpless Fernando Muslera.

He was at the double a mere three minutes later, finding a pocket of space between towering centre-backs Christian Luyindama and Marcao to head home another pinpoint effort, and the then 18-year-old capped off his coming-of-age performance with another deft finish past Muslera in injury time to claim a well-deserved match ball. Rodrygo hit as many goals in 92 minutes on his first Bernabeu appearance on club football’s biggest stage as he did in the rest of his entire 2019/20 domestic campaign but it was a sign of things to come from the Brazilian and was the first indication of his knack of rising to the grandest occasions.

Now aged 24, Rodrygo has never scored more than 10 goals in a league campaign or been an outrageously prolific assistant. He places in the bottom third for (non-penalty) expected goals and assists amongst players in his position in Europe’s top five leagues over the past year while Wirtz and Simons rank in the top 25% and 37% respectively.

But Rodrygo has 18 goals in senior knockout football while Wirtz and Simons have 10 combined and he’s not exactly stat-padded either. Manchester City, Chelsea and most recently Atletico Madrid fans can attest to Rodrygo’s match-winning effect in the latter stages of the Champions League and he fired Real Madrid’s only goals in their 2-1 2023 Copa de Rey final triumph.

That proven ability could’ve made the difference in those narrow defeats to PSG and Newcastle United and will doubtless come in handy again with Liverpool apparently set up to challenge at the pointy end of all competitions for many years to come. It’s no exaggeration to say Real Madrid wouldn’t have won either of their most recent Champions League titles if it wasn’t for Rodrygo and now Liverpool have the chance to buy the capacity to tip a game on a knife-edge while also getting some retaliation for the loss of Trent Alexander-Arnold.

There’s a reason Jude Bellingham described him as “the most talented and most gifted player” at Real Madrid and the 33-cap Brazil international is a humble Galáctico too as its been well-documented how sorely Los Blancos have missed his defensive work.

Liverpool fighting Arsenal to win race for Rodrygo

Arne Slot appears to be winning the battle with Mikel Arteta for Joao Pedro and the pair may have to prepare to renew hostilities with Rodrygo on the market. Real Madrid are shopping him around with an €100m (£85m) price tag after the arrival of Kylian Mbappe saw Rodrygo clock up his lowest minutes in three seasons and the England appears the obvious destination.

While not quite the famous “Why put another layer of gold paint on the Bentley when you are losing the entire engine?” scenario that Zinedine Zidane described when Florentino Perez sold Claude Makelele to sign David Beckham in 2003, losing such an important glue piece who improves those around him for another luxury player in Alexander-Arnold does indicate Real Madrid may be repeating mistakes of the past.

That will benefit whoever can snap up Rodrygo though and after Chelsea dropped out of the race aiming to focus on younger and less established targets, this appears to be a straight fight between Liverpool and Arsenal. Rodrygo would surely be higher up the Gunners’ priority list especially if they miss out on Pedro, and would also serve as the perfect antidote to their silverware-shyness under Arteta.

Wirtz exploding onto the scene as a target after Manchester City appeared initial front-runners may deal a blow to Liverpool’s chase of the Real Madrid star as they can only fight on so many fronts But how fearsome would a front four of Mohamed Salah, Wirtz, Rodrygo and Pedro be?

Add a selection of Xavi Simons, Cody Gakpo, Harvey Elliot, Federico Chiesa, Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz available for rotation ahead of the slightly deeper Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister, Curtis Jones and Donminik Szoboszlai and it’s a mouthwatering lineup that may be too tempting for Slot to turn down.