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This article is part of Football FanCast's Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news...

According to L'Equipe, former Liverpool target Ousmane Dembele now wants to stay at Barcelona, as the possibility of a departure grows unlikely.

What's the word?

Liverpool's attacking trio of Mohamad Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane were exceptional last term, notching 56 goals between them in the Premier League.

However, that reportedly hasn't stopped Liverpool from showing an interest in attacking recruits.

Last month TEAMtalk reported that Barcelona had given the Reds the green light to bid for Dembele, but any hopes they did have of signing the player have now been quashed.

L'Equipe claim that the French winger wants to stay at Barcelona and has no plans of moving away. That comes after Bayern Munich and Liverpool both made contact with the Catalan club.

Liverpool should be thankful

Last month, we documented the fact that Dembele would be unlikely to get on with Jurgen Klopp because of his rebellious attitude, but there are further reasons to suggest why this would have been a rather needless signing.

If you look at the overall picture, the 22-year-old wouldn't improve Liverpool, especially given the supreme talent they have in wide areas.

Both Salah and Mane scored 22 Premier League goals in 2018/19, playing predominantly from wide positions. Dembele, on the other hand, scored just eight.

But it's his overall impact on the pitch that is also worse.

In La Liga last season he averaged 1.3 shots per game. If you compare that to both of Liverpool's dynamic wingers, Salah had 3.6 shots per outing whilst Mane managed 2.4.

With that in mind, it's unlikely he'd add an extra layer of goals to the squad. Furthermore, he also wouldn't offer a huge amount of improvement in terms of creativity. The fact he claimed just two more assists than Xherdan Shaqiri tells the story.

You can relive Liverpool's Champions League celebrations in glorious 2D thanks to the guys at 442oons in the video below...

Last term, Salah played 1.8 key passes per game. Dembele, who can also play on the right-hand side, made 1.6.

Considering the brunt of their attacks are started by the full-backs anyway, his influence would be narrowed down even more if he did join Liverpool.

If you take all of this into account, the Reds should be thankful that he's deciding to stay at Barcelona this summer instead of potentially joining them.