The Liverpool man tipped to save Michael Edwards £52m

A Liverpool man has been tipped to save the club £52 million.

Liverpool have been extensively linked with Timo Werner over the past few months and there is truth in those rumours, but does Michael Edwards need to splash the cash?

There is some strength in depth within the club structure and the clamour to spend money is probably a result of the parsimony of recent seasons.

Despite the arrivals of Alisson, Virgil van Dijk, Naby Keita and Fabinho for big money, you wouldn’t throw the accusation around that Liverpool are big spenders.

A lot of their key players were brought in for small amounts or through the Academy. Joel Matip and Joe Gomez cost less than £5 million as a pair, Trent Alexander-Arnold came through the system, Jordan Henderson and Gini Wijnaldum were signed for less than £30 million while Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah now look like bargains.

That’s without talking about the actual bargains in the team, like Andy Robertson, and now there could be one more added to that list.

Goal, via the Echo’s Blood Red Podcast, wrote that Salzburg manager Jesse Marsche thinks January arrival Takumi Minamino could save Liverpool big money.

When the Japanese international has been used this season, he hasn’t had a clearly defined role. But somewhere that Takumi Minamino has featured is as a false nine – the position Firmino plays.

And that’s somewhere Marsche thinks Minamino could feature, and could make that role his own in the end.

"He said: “I think he could be good in Firmino’s position where against the ball, he is ready to do some pressing, but then with the ball, he comes into almost a 10 position for build-up and gets in the box to score goals.“Firmino is so good at it but I think that’s something Taki can do as well.”"

If the ex-Salzburg man does, where does that leave players like Werner or even Divock Origi? All of a sudden we’ve gone from talking about the need to accommodate those four – Werner plus the existing front three – to talking about having five players to keep happy.

That might not be possible. A lot of fans won’t be happy about it, but have we already got our very own Werner sitting on the subs bench?