How will the Premier League's Top 5 close the gap on Manchester City?

#3 Liverpool

Players to retain:

1.Mohamed Salah's sensational season has put him as a hot contender for the Balon d'Or and his exploits have put him on Real Madrid's radar. Liverpool fans will be fearing a repeat of the move Philippe Coutinho forced to leave for Barcelona. Liverpool will have to do everything possible to keep Salah at the club for next season.

Players to leave

1.Emre Can's contract expires at the end of the season. With a deadlock over a new contract, Can is almost surely on his way out of the club, with Juventus even claiming that a deal is just a few days away.

2.Having fallen behind Loris Karius in the pecking order, Simon Mignolet is likely to move in search of first team football.

3.Daniel Sturridge has sadly failed to replicate the form he showed in the 2013-14 season. He has found himself on the sidelines for most of the time, due to injuries and he's not the type of forward that Jurgen Klopp prefers. A player of his quality needs regular game time when fit, so he might make a move to a team where he could be the target man.

Player signed

A deal to sign Naby Keita was agreed with Red Bull Leipzig last summer and the Guinean midfielder will join his new teammates at the end of the Champions League campaign. Liverpool will have a top-class box-to-box midfielder in their ranks next season.

Positions to strengthen

Liverpool's incredible run in the Champions League has clearly highlighted one major issue. Liverpool need to strengthen their bench strength across all areas of the pitch.

1.If Mignolet leaves the club, Liverpool might look at a backup keeper. If they can find a good keeper on the market, Liverpool will look to sign him to provide competition to Karius.

2.With Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain out till November, Emre Can departing and Adam Lallana constantly hit by injuries, Liverpool will need to sign central midfielders to add depth to the squad.

3.Dejan Lovren, Joel Matip and Ragnar Klavan are decent centre-backs. However, if the Reds need to challenge on all fronts next season, they will need a top class centre-back to partner Virgil van Dijk.

4.Liverpool were unable to rest their devastating front 3 in the Premier League towards the end of the season due to a lack of options. Danny Ings was coming of numerous long-term injury setbacks and doesn't provide the same quality as Salah, Mane and Firmino. If Liverpool manage to sign Nabil Fekir, it will be a massive boost to an already scary attacking side.

Tactics:

Jurgen Klopp's philosophy of gegenpressing make the Reds one of the most exciting teams to watch. The pressing is extremely tiring and it has an impact on the fitness of the players, especially when the squad is as thin as Liverpool's was. We've seen numerous Liverpool players suffering injury issues this campaign and it might be due to the effort they were made to put in training and during the games.

It also requires the midfielders and defenders to be on their game for most of the time as lapses in concentration will make it hard to stop the opposition. Though Liverpool has improved drastically since the signing of van Dijk, Klopp will have to devise a way to keep the opposition's attack at bay.

Liverpool also needs to improve their mentality as they've conceded silly goals at numerous points in the season and that's cost them important points in the Premier League. The number of draws was also a major cause for concern.

Liverpool also has to defend better during set-pieces and when high balls get played into the box and a lot of focus needs to go into this during training.