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'We have to sell to buy' – Slot warns of tough summer for Liverpool

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Liverpool must "sell to buy" this coming summer, but Arne Slot is sure the club are braced for the challenge.

The Reds' disappointing season continued with a 4-0 aggregate defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, sealed by a 2-0 loss at Anfield.

Liverpool have lost five games in a single Champions League campaign for the first time, and they are set to finish the campaign without a major trophy.

Slot was backed with a huge summer of spending in last year's transfer window, with Liverpool breaking the British transfer record twice, to sign Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak, while they also spent big on Hugo Ekitike, Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong as they aimed to build on last season's Premier League title triumph.

Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah were also handed bumper new contracts, though the latter will be leaving Liverpool at the end of this season.

And Slot has warned that the club will have to make some big calls on their squad in the off-season.

"[Qualifying for the Champions League] is what we have to play for now in the coming weeks," Slot told Amazon Prime.

"The good thing is Alex [Isak] is back, well able to make minutes.

"Much has been said that the club is in a transition. The club has sold eight or 10 players to make money to sign five or so very talented players.

"We have to sell to buy. We are losing some players on a free transfer. It is a big challenge in the summer but the club has shown this model works.

"As I said many times, the future looks very good, especially if we can sign players after good players leaving this summer."

Liverpool had 21 shots, which is their highest tally in a Champions League game in which they did not score since they had 24 against Real Madrid in the 2022 final.

The Reds recorded 1.94 expected goals, though PSG did have three big chances to Liverpool's two, with Ousmane Dembele scoring both of the visitors' goals.

Slot added: "Last week was, of course, was tough and very difficult, but we showed in a week that we can improve a lot and it is a big compliment to the players that they showed how they could be.

"The players kept on going, even after going 1-0 down and that is a big compliment to them.

"If you look at expected goals we should have scored two but didn't score one and that has happened far too often this season."

Liverpool have to swiftly regain their focus as their attention turns to a huge Merseyside derby against Everton, who are also in the race for European qualification, this weekend.

They will likely have to do without Ekitike, who sustained a serious-looking injury and had to be taken off on a stretcher.

"This season we have [only been able to] play Alex, Florian and Hugo together for 88 minutes," Slot told reporters, as quoted by The Telegraph, referring to the attacking trio the Reds signed last summer.

"We got another 27 minutes [but now] I will be surprised if there are any more minutes this season."