Liverpool needs to leverage their main advantage to outperform Arsenal and Chelsea in the pursuit of Viktor Gyokeres

Where last summer’s transfer window featured a merry-go-round of midfielders, this year’s is expected to revolve around strikers.

The forward market isn’t as reliable and potent as it once was. For the most part, Europe’s elite will have to compromise with some of their own expectations or take a punt in order to land a potential scoring hero.

On the move is expected to be Viktor Gyokeres, who has registered 36 goals and 15 assists in 42 games for Sporting CP since making the move to Lisbon last summer.

It isn’t surprising he’s been so heavily linked with a move away from Sporting already, but what was notable was a lack of interest from the Premier League last summer upon his exit from Championship play-off runners-up Coventry City. Now, England’s elite are interested in bringing him back from mainland Europe.

Arsenal and Chelsea are both monitoring the Sweden international, whose contract contains an £86m release clause, but there’s perhaps a need for one of their main rivals to consider a move instead.

Liverpool haven’t had an out-and-out reliable centre forward since the days of Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge. Jurgen Klopp’s tenure has been underpinned by goal contributions from wide areas, with Mohamed Salah and formerly Sadio Mane often carrying the scoring load.

But as this long season to end the Klopp era has wound down, it’s become increasingly obvious the Reds need some reinforcements up front, maybe if only to ease the pressure on the next manager.

90min understands Gyokeres’ current boss, Ruben Amorim, is the leading contender for the job, though a deal has not yet been agreed. Should Amorim take the gig, he’d turn up to Anfield with a rebuild needed in attack.

The future of Salah remains uncertain with his contract up in 2025 and interest from Saudi Pro League champions Al Ittihad, while Cody Gakpo and Darwin Nunez are a far cry from prime Roberto Firmino and Mane. Diogo Jota is tremendous, but spends huge chunks of time on the treatment table.

An Amorim-led Liverpool would also have a crucial advantage if they decided to enter the Gyokeres sweepstakes, too.

In a recent interview with Portuguese outlet Record, Gyokeres’ agent Hasan Cetinkaya said: “It will be more difficult for Viktor to stay if Ruben Amorim leaves Sporting, because Viktor came precisely because of Ruben. They day we met, I said to Ruben, ‘Here is my boy, he came to Sporting because of you’.

“Obviously, I will have to talk to the president, the president is the boss, the one who makes the decisions, and we will have to know what he thinks for the future and what Sporting’s project is, but Viktor also has a say, obviously, and if Ruben Amorim leaves, it will be more difficult to continue.”

Following Nunez’s gaffes in recent high-profile matches, it’s easy to imagine Liverpool remaining hesitant over spending such a sum on another Portuguese league forward again, but there are clear stylistic differences between him and Gyokeres.

Where Nunez’s immense physical gifts have not yet been tamed – and at this rate never will be – Gyokeres is comfortable in his skin as a powerful yet elegant big-man. It’s no surprise the Uruguayan has been shunted to the wing so often when the going gets tough.

Nunez’s numbers in Portugal – 34 goals in 41 games in his final season with Benfica – are at least comparable to Gyokeres’, but even then there were question marks raised about his erratic style. Is he ever going to be a clinical threat? And ultimately, can you really take a Nunez into a Premier League title-race gun-fight?