Liverpool and Manchester City are both seen as strong contenders to land Antoine Semenyo, but it\u2019s the Reds who arguably need the Bournemouth winger far more right now.<\/p>\n
Semenyo has started the 2025\/26 season in excellent form, producing nine goal contributions in 14 appearances across all competitions.<\/p>\n
Liverpool\u2019s right flank needs help<\/p>\n
Liverpool currently lack a real attacking threat on the right side. While Mo Salah\u2019s dip in form is part of the issue, the departure of Trent Alexander-Arnold has also affected the Egyptian\u2019s output. When Salah isn\u2019t scoring, his reduced defensive contribution becomes more noticeable \u2014 something that wasn\u2019t a problem last season when he hit 29 league goals.<\/p>\n
This makes Football Insider\u2019s update even more interesting as the January window approaches. Despite the recent 2-0 win over a poor West Ham side, Slot\u2019s team still feel far from stable \u2014 and that performance came with Salah dropped to the bench.<\/p>\n
How does Semenyo stack up?<\/p>\n
Salah is still a top-level creator, ranking highly in chance creation among Premier League wingers. But Semenyo\u2019s numbers show why he\u2019s attracting interest:<\/p>\n
xG: Semenyo 0.38 \/ Salah 0.32<\/p>\n
Non-penalty xG: Semenyo 0.26 \/ Salah 0.25<\/p>\n
xA: Semenyo 0.23 \/ Salah 0.15<\/p>\n
Chances created: Semenyo 1.15 \/ Salah 2.01<\/p>\n
Successful dribbles: Semenyo 1.77 \/ Salah 0.92<\/p>\n
Where Semenyo stands out is his defensive work:<\/p>\n
Duels won per 90: 6.47 (Semenyo) vs 2.51 (Salah)<\/p>\n
Recoveries per 90: 5.39 (Semenyo) vs 2.77 (Salah)<\/p>\n
Liverpool wouldn\u2019t be signing him purely for goals \u2014 his off-the-ball intensity and defensive contribution could give the right flank a new dimension.<\/p>\n
Why are Man City interested?<\/p>\n
Pep Guardiola reportedly sees Semenyo as a player who can help City evolve the profile of their wide options. But while City\u2019s interest is strategic, Liverpool\u2019s need is much more urgent.<\/p>\n
If Liverpool are serious about strengthening in January, Semenyo should be a top priority \u2014 and that urgency may give them the edge over Man City in the race for his signature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool and Manchester City are both seen as strong contenders to land Antoine Semenyo, but it\u2019s the Reds who arguably need the Bournemouth winger far more right now. Semenyo has started the 2025\/26 season in excellent form, producing nine goal contributions in 14 appearances across all competitions. Liverpool\u2019s right flank needs help Liverpool currently lack …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":56213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Antoine-Semenyo-Liverpool-Manchester-City-Premier-League.jpg.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56212"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56214,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56212\/revisions\/56214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}