Liverpool remain intent on recruiting a long-term successor to Mohamed Salah and have opened talks over Yan Diomande. Leipzig, however, are resisting a sale and are pushing to extend Diomande\u2019s contract. To accept a transfer, the German club would insist on \u201csignificantly more\u201d than Liverpool\u2019s opening proposal, which the Reds submitted largely to \u201ctest the waters\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Daily Mail state Liverpool are set to return with an improved bid, but Leipzig will watch Diomande\u2019s World Cup displays closely and may boost their valuation accordingly. That approach is already proving effective.<\/p>\n
Diomande\u2019s tournament with C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire is just beginning, but he made a strong impression in the 1\u20130 victory over Ecuador. On the night his quick feet and direct dribbling stood out. No player had more touches in the opposition box than Diomande (12), while his five chances created led the game. He troubled an Ecuador defence containing PSG\u2019s Willian Pacho and Arsenal\u2019s Piero Hincapi\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Match metrics from that appearance:
\nMinutes played: 90
\nChances created: 5
\nDribble success: 67% (4\/6)
\nTouches in opposition box: 12
\nExpected goals and assists (xG + xA): 0.54
\nGround duels won: 73% (11\/15)<\/p>\n
Leipzig officials will welcome the possibility that continued form raises interest and transfer value. The club has adjusted its strategy recently by attempting to keep key players on fresh contracts while remaining open to sales for the right fee. That could mean holding Diomande to a new deal and negotiating a move later on more favourable terms.<\/p>\n
Relations between the two clubs are described as strong. The presence of J\u00fcrgen Klopp in the Red Bull hierarchy is noted as a further link that should aid constructive talks, and both sides are expected to conduct negotiations amicably as the window progresses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Diomande’s World Cup showing has pushed Leipzig’s valuation while Liverpool readies an improved bid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14805,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961,175],"tags":[983,1162,1637],"class_list":["post-14806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-liverpool","tag-agents","tag-analytics","tag-assists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}