The new season is up and running and for some clubs it has only taken one game to be afforded a deeply concerning insight into the work that needs doing. Fortunately for them, there are still a few days left in the transfer window in which to resolve some of those issues. ET on Tuesday, Sept. 1, that time will run out.
And in true Premier League fashion, there are already plenty of teams who look like they are going to be taking their business right down to the wire. With that in mind, here are some storylines to keep an eye on over the coming week: Though a 2-2 draw on an emotive day at St. James' Park is nothing to sniff at, Liverpool's opening game of the season was more eye-opening for the work it showed was needed on Andoni Iraola's squad than the battling spirit shown to draw 2-2 with Newcastle.
The head coach himself is insistent that he does not need the sort of holding midfielder whose presence might have quelled some of the danger caused by Yoane Wissa and the fast-countering Magpies but he is likely to get a few new additions in wide areas. Though Cody Gakpo was effective, scoring a brilliant low equalizer, Liverpool have been in talks with Tottenham over the sale of the Dutch international, who has 33 goals and 16 assists over 128 Premier League games. Those are hardly stellar numbers but Gakpo was the most senior option available to Iraola, who got the sort of performance from Rio Ngumoha that might be expected of a 17-year-old playing on his opposite flank.
New signing Victor Munoz added a sparky presence down the right, drawing the penalty for their last-gasp equalizer, but he is not a natural on that side of the field either. Mohamed Salah's empty boots remain unfilled. Yankuba Minteh looks to be the man to succeed an all-time Anfield great, though the Reds' first two offers to Brighton were rejected, a fee of around $95 million being set if Liverpool are to get their man.
The 22-year-old may not have the sort of prodigious scoring record that Salah had in Serie A but perhaps if Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak, the former injured and the latter woefully out of form, can excel, then there will be little need for a scorer. Early in his career, Minteh's outstanding qualities look to be around getting the ball in position for others to score, even if he is not doing much of the shooting himself. On the opposite flank, the standoff with Paris Saint-Germain over Bradley Barcola continues.
Is the 23-year-old winger worth the near $200 million that Paris Saint-Germain are said to want for him, their demands informed by the huge (and arguably overpriced) fee Chelsea paid for Morgan Rogers? Probably not, though it is a hard one to judge. In the last two seasons of Ligue 1 football, Barcola scored 25 goals and provided 11 assists.
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