43 in 49: Liverpool have reportedly registered their interest in a true goal MACHINE

Liverpool have reportedly registered their interest in an out-and-out goal machine. His release clause will be a problem, however.

Football Insider claims Liverpool have registered their interest in Viktor Gyorekes. The Sporting striker is coming off the back of an extraordinary campaign where his 43 goals in 49 games help lead the Portuguese side to the title.

Naturally, that has clubs interested in signing him. Gyokeres, who thrived at Coventry before signing for Sporting, is a target of both Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.

But his release clause is a problem. Sporting consider him so valuable that they'd want clubs to pay it - and it stands at £86m.

All three Premier League sides are reluctant to do that and would hope for Sporting to accept a lower offer. Gyokeres isn't off anywhere soon, then - there's a lot of negotiation to be had.

Liverpool like Viktor Gyokeres

Liverpool both did and didn't have goalscoring problems last season. For the most part, they couldn't stop scoring and were leading Europe at one stage in the New Year.

And then things took a turn. The goals dried up and Liverpool suffered greatly because no one was putting the ball in the net with any regularity post-January.

Both injuries and a drop in form led to that and it turned what looked like a quadruple-winning campaign into one with 'just' the EFL Cup. Signing a striker - or at least a goalscorer - makes some sense then.

But it equally makes sense to back Arne Slot's ability to find consistency in the players at the club. Darwin Nunez, for instance, can be a lethal and consistent scorer as we've seen at both Benfica and, more recently, the Uruguayan national team.

If Slot can get him firing, there's certainly no need to sign Gyokeres for £86m. In fact, signing him would be a sign that Liverpool are giving up on Nunez ever being the player they thought he could be.

So we can't imagine that the Swede is heading to Anfield this summer. January? We'll see as everyone will have a much better idea of the goalscoring potential in these players under Slot.