Arne Slot has urgent priority to fix amid bizarre Liverpool pattern involving Darwin Núñez

When a manager openly admits that talks are taking place for them to move clubs, it has to be considered pretty likely that a deal gets done. Arne Slot wants to be the new Liverpool boss and negotiations with Feyenoord are underway.

"It's no secret that I want to go to Liverpool," he said, via Fabrizio Romano, ahead of Feyenoord's 3-1 win over Go Ahead Eagles in the Eredivisie. "The clubs are negotiating and I am waiting to see what will come out of it. We have to wait until an agreement is reached, but I have every confidence in that."

Liverpool had looked at a wide variety of options heading into the summer, with Jürgen Klopp, of course, not an easy man to replace. Xabi Alonso would have been ideal and Rúben Amorim seemed a good fit, but Slot appears to be the chosen one.

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As talks continue over a compensation package to seal the deal, Liverpool fans will want to know what Slot is like as a coach. Already, we know that he is attack-minded and wants a high-energy, high-pressing team. That will all be very welcome.

But there is one element of the Liverpool team at the moment that seems in obvious need of an uptick. Given the five senior attacking options that Liverpool has — Mohamed Salah, Luis Díaz, Darwin Núñez, Diogo Jota and Cody Gakpo — the lack of goals recently and the dismal levels of finishing are almost unexplainable.

How can it be that a group that talented can all collectively misfire at the same time? The issue has extended to midfielders like Harvey Elliott and Dominik Szoboszlai but it is at the feet of the strikers that the responsibility must lie.

Salah hasn't looked like the same player since he returned from injury but his record is more than good enough to think that once he has reset himself and got back into his groove — after a rest over the summer — he can regain his previous heights. Jota's problem is not missed chances but injuries.

Undoubtedly, there is a question mark over the ruthlessness of Díaz, Núñez and Gakpo. Between them, they have scored 45 times for Liverpool this season, but only 25 of those goals have been in the Premier League.

And it is not like there haven't been chances. Núñez, in particular, has been guilty of missing gilt-edged opportunities and the Uruguayan has never managed to match the clinical streak that he showed at Benfica. Reds legend Jamie Carragher questioned whether he was good enough to be the number nine in a title-winning side this week as a result.

For all of Liverpool's ills — and it has been defensively porous for a while now, often conceding the first goal in a game and making life far harder than it needs to be — it is the finishing that makes the biggest difference. Liverpool has always been creating, but not always scoring, and when you miss chances, those come back to haunt you.

Liverpool's win over Fulham wasn't a turning point or a markedly improved performance compared to other recent games (as the poor outing against Everton ultimately showed) but Trent Alexander-Arnold netted a stunner and Jota and Ryan Gravenberch were clinical. The three goals masked an otherwise unremarkable performance.

The profligacy in the Liverpool attack has been a big problem when the caliber of personnel suggests that area of the pitch should be a strength. Fixing that bizarre juxtaposition has to be Slot's immediate priority, with all five senior Liverpool forwards having all somehow gone off the boil at the same time.