Richard Hughes gets GREEN light to sign incredible forward

Richard Hughes has gotten a green light to sign an incredible forward.

As a sporing director, you often have to make big decisions. Hughes has had to do that a lot already during his 18 months in charge at Anfield.

During his first year, he pretty much got everything right. Now, in his second year, the jury is still out. Hughes was very active during the summer window and spent a lot of money.

He was able to convince the club's key targets to join Liverpool over rivals.

But whether all of those moves were a success still remains to be seen. We won't know just how good Hughes is at his job in a few years time when we can sit back and properly judge the performance of all the players who arrived this summer.

Unfortunately, for Hughes his job also doesn't end with the summer. There's still more work for him to do. In fact in January he may be even busier than anticipated.

Liverpool are not in an situation. The squad is very imbalanced right now and there's a lack of depth in a lot of areas of the pitch.

The Reds still haven't replaced Luis Diaz on the left-wing, which is why they want to sign Antoine Semenyo. Trent Alexander-Arnold's position hasn't properly been addressed and Liverpool have had to play Dominik Szoboszlai in that role.

On top of that, Arne Slot has just two fit senior centre-backs available to him at the moment, which is again a massive concern.

In January, bringing in a centre-back is going to be a priority. But there's going to be another area Hughes has to address after the injury to Alexander Isak, which has given him a green light to pursue a move for another forward.

According to The Times, Liverpool are expecting a 'lengthy' lay off for Isak. How long that is going to be remains to be seen.

But it does mean that right now Liverpool actually only have one fit out and out no.9. Federico Chiesa could play there but that's not really his position.

So, Hugo Ekitike is the only choice right now, and that cannot remain the case if for example Isak is going to be out for months and months and perhaps for the majority of the rest of the season.

Given Isak's injury problems, it's fair to say Liverpool need another striker, and recently there has been a report that the Reds are ready to make a move for Franculino Dju.

He's a 21-year-old striker who has scored 21 goals already this season for Midtjylland in the Danish Superliga. In total, Franculino's record is incredible. He's made 67 goal contributions in 103 games for his club side, averaging a goal or assist 0.97 per 90 minutes, so almost every game.

Those are incredible numbers and he is an incredible player at the current level he is playing in.

Still very young, he clearly has a lot of potential and Anfield Watch understands Liverpool's scouts have been keeping a close eye on Midtjylland's games this season, watching Franculino and Ousmane Diao in particular.

Now Isak's injury probably gives the green light for Hughes to make that move in January. So this is one to watch.

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