Liverpool to make January offer for Thomas Lemar with Monaco forward favouring Reds move over Arsenal

The France international will cost as much as £90m in January with Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool all interested in the 22-year-old

Liverpool will go in for Monaco's £90m-rated Thomas Lemar in January, as they attempt to bolster their chances of securing a top-four spot, and beat Arsenal to the French international's signature

Jürgen Klopp has a longstanding interest in the 22-year-old forward, and the belief at Anfield is that his first choice is Liverpool, even though Arsenal came close to signing him in August.

Arsene Wenger was looking to sign an attacker as a potential replacement for Alexis Sanchez, but the deal fell down, partly due to Lemar's desire to play Champions League football.

Liverpool could be in a broadly similar situation as they anticipate Barcelona coming back for Philippe Coutinho, although there is more to their interest in Lemar than that.

While the club do not want to be in a situation where any sale leaves them short of options, Lemar is targeted as someone to give Klopp even more attacking variety and create what may well be one of the fastest attacking line-ups in the world.

Barcelona still want Coutinho but since they also plan to sign Griezmann through his £100m release clause, they have become reticent about the type of fee that purchasing the Brazilian would require, with Liverpool so far insisting that even an offer of £120m would not convince them to sell.