Five potential replacements for Luis Suarez at Liverpool

5. Christian Benteke

The Belgian striker, who had a very impressive debut season in the Premier League with Aston Villa, is available in the market after having put in a transfer request. Villa value him at £25 million, and with many clubs interested in buying him, they should be able to get a figure in that range by selling him.

22-year-old Benteke prefers being played as a centre forward, and is a good finisher with excellent heading ability. He impressed everyone at Liverpool with his performance at Anfield last season.

Liverpool might move to sign Benteke to replace Suarez, but are likely to get stiff competition for his signature from the likes of Spurs and Arsenal.

Conclusion

Liverpool will have to decide if they want to keep an unhappy and sulking Suarez in the team for the next season, and probably see his value diminish for the future transfer markets, or sell him now at a price close to what they value him at.

If Suarez is indeed sold, then it will be essential to replace him efficiently in the team to ensure that there are no roadblocks to the progress of the project being carried out by Brendan Rodgers. Someone like Higuain or Shaqiri will add a lot of quality to the team, and Liverpool should seriously consider the option of a player-plus-cash exchange for Suarez with Real Madrid or Bayern Munich.

As was seen in the case of Mkhitaryan, attracting top talent will be difficult for Liverpool due to regular absence from Champions League football in recent times. The money that will be potentially generated from the sale of Suarez should be utilized prudently, and not wasted like it was when Torres was sold.