Ahead of facing Leicester City this weekend, Slot offered two key attributes when he was asked what he looks for from a number nine - goals and work-rate.
“You want the difficult answer of the simple answer?” he said. “The simple answer is goals, that’s why you play a forward. He needs to produce goals.
“But apart from that, in modern day football, a number nine needs to work hard and be part of an intense pressing team.
“If you look at the teams now playing in the semi-final of the Champions League, all 11 players work their a** off. So, that is also what I’m expecting from our number nine, that he’s part of an intense pressing team. But in the end it’s helpful that the number nine of Liverpool scores goals.”
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That perhaps tells its own story for why Liverpool will be in the market for a new centre-forward this summer. While they are the highest scorers in the Premier League with 74 goals, Jota and Nunez have only scored six and five times respectively in the English top-flight this season.
The Reds have been linked with new forwards all season long, with Newcastle United’s Alexander Isak grabbing the most transfer gossip column space since the January transfer window.
But prior to that, Omar Marmoush was perhaps the forward linked most following a prolific first half of the season with Eintracht Frankfurt as reports suggested Liverpool were scouting the Egyptian.
Having returned 17 goals and six assists for Frankfurt from 41 appearances last year, he was in even better form this season with the forward returning 20 goals and 14 assists from just 26 appearances for the club.
With Liverpool previously moving for Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo in the winters of 2022 and 2023, having feared on missing out on the pair if they had they not, transfer-hungry supporters perhaps hoped for a repeat in January.
Yet considering the Reds already possessed six forwards - though both Nunez and Federico Chiesa had been linked with exits - a mid-season swoop was not anticipated.
Sure enough, when Man City instead made their move for Marmoush, there was never any suggestion of Liverpool rivalling the reigning Premier League champions.
Completing a £59m switch to the Etihad towards the end of January, the 26-year-old has enjoyed a lively start to his City career with seven goals and an assist from 14 appearances.
And by moving mid-season, City have ensured they will not need to enter the market for a new striker in the summer at a time when Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United are expected to all pursue new number nines.
So if not Marmoush, then who could be the answer for the Reds? Well perhaps the answer is rather close at the Egyptian’s former home.
While the forward is still the joint-third leading goalscorer in the Bundesliga (15 league goals) behind Harry Kane and Patrik Schick, his former strike-partner Hugo Ekitike is only just behind him (14 goals).
Liverpool have also found themselves regularly linked with the 22-year-old in 2025, with the Frenchman boasting 21 goals and nine assists from 43 appearances in all competitions this season.
Frankfurt often played Ekitike alongside Marmoush upfront during the first half of the season, as both flourished in front of goal even if it was the Egyptian who grabbed more headlines across the continent.
But now still thriving as a lone striker, the France Under-21s international looks set to be a highly-sought forward this summer.
Quick and powerful, standing at 6ft 3, Ekitike certainly knows where the goal is while he also thrives when dribbling with the ball, creating chances for team-mates and dropping deep to receive possession.
The official Bundesliga website last year also described him as a ‘real workhorse’ who is ‘known for his willingness to press’. Consider both of Slot’s preferred attacking criteria ticked when assessing a player who has been compared to a 'young Thierry Henry'.
Signed permanently for €16.5m after a successful loan from Paris Saint-Germain in April 2024, Ekitike will not come cheap with reports suggesting Frankfurt have slapped an £80m asking-price on his head. But that is still a fraction of what it would take to lure Isak away from St. James’ Park, for example. While Liverpool have not been shy to pay such a fee before, as their record-signing of Nunez in 2022 demonstrates in the first place.
Isak and Marmoush are now aged 25 and 26 respectively as they navigate their peak years, yet at 22 years old, Ekitike’s best years are firmly ahead of him. Rather than targeting the finished article, the Reds are known to favour signing elite potential that can develop at Anfield. While it has arguably not worked out with Nunez, that does not mean it will not again with their next attacking signing.
Supporters might have been a little disappointed not to see Liverpool move for Marmoush in January, considering how frequent transfer links had been in the first half of the season. But while reports previously claimed that the Reds were scouting the Egyptian, perhaps their attention was instead focused more on the player to his side.
While it remains to be seen if Liverpool will move for Ekitike, their need for a new number nine is clear. And with so many top Premier League sides also in the same market, Frankfurt’s Frenchman is set to at least be a man in demand.
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