The Tabasco Sauce Solution

Why are Liverpool being linked to Rayan Cherki and Omar Marmoush?

Once upon a time, the makers of Tabasco sauce had a problem on their hands. They naturally wanted to increase their profits by selling more bottles of their famous product, but they just couldn’t do it.

In an attempt to boost sales, the CEO of the company sanctioned the creation of an expensive television advert. It went down well. People liked the advert, but the number of bottles sold remained unchanged.

The CEO tried and tried, coming up with a multitude of innovative ways to shout about Tabasco sauce, but nothing worked. People knew enough about the product, they just didn’t need to buy any more of it.

Later, a factory worker overheard the CEO vocalising his paradox. A simple man who had worked in the company’s main manufacturing plant for many years, he had an opinion on the conundrum.

“Why don’t you just make the hole — at the top of the bottle — bigger?” he asked. The CEO stopped mid-sentence and froze on the spot. By increasing the size of the hole, customers would unknowingly use more sauce per serving and consequently purchase more bottles.

Sometimes, all it takes to solve a problem is a different perspective.

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Ever since Liverpool sold Fabinho in 2022, the whole world has gossiped about the lack of a true number six on Merseyside. Ryan Gravenberch has been filling the void under Arne Slot, but despite his form, the need for another deep-lying midfielder remains.

This season, we’ve learnt plenty about the new manager’s plans. Slot seems to view Dominik Szoboszlai and Harvey Elliott as his two number ten options, Curtis Jones and Alexis Mac Allister as his two number eights, and Gravenberch as his only six. It’s not set in stone, things are flexible, but it seems to be the basic blueprint.

Further forward, we’ve got two players for the left, two players for the right and two players for the striker spot. In other words, the attacking department is fine, but we’re one player short in midfield.

Well, at least that’s how the landscape would look if you was the CEO in charge of selling more Tabasco sauce.

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This season, Liverpool have been linked with a transfer move for Omar Marmoush. And more recently, the Reds have been tipped to make a winter bid for Rayan Cherki. Two attackers, not midfielders. So what gives?

Look, it’s easy to disbelieve those rumours. And it’s entirely possible that such speculation is entirely fuelled by agents wanting to get paid for moving their clients to bigger clubs.

But, hear me out on this one. What if there’s a factory worker somewhere inside Anfield asking Richard Hughes to make the hole at the top of the bottle bigger?

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Let me explain. Szoboszlai in particular has mostly been deployed as Slot’s ten, and his performances have been good-but-not-great. His defensive endeavour is unquestionable, but his usage of the ball in the final third has been poor.

The captain of Hungary is playing relatively close to goal, but he doesn’t score that often and his decisions when it really matters are often quite peculiar. I mean, Cole Palmer literally scored more Premier League goals in 41 minutes against Brighton and Hove Albion just a few weeks ago than Szoboszlai has scored since he arrived in England about 18 months ago.

He’s excellent on the technical side of the game — and obviously very physical — but there’s a chance he’s just not that inclined to make the difference at the business end of the pitch.

On top of that, the midfield market is known to be a bit dry right now. It’s a desert out there. Martín Zubimendi would have been a nice pickup, and the Reds could probably source an alternative, but the concern is the player who is eventually signed might not be good enough to represent Liverpool on a regular basis. The level is high.

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Given all of that, here’s a potential solution. Here’s how you make the hole at the top of the bottle bigger. And I’m wondering whether Hughes and Slot are thinking the same thing as the Reds look to strengthen in 2025.