During a recent video on the TIFO Podcast YouTube channel, The Athletic’s David Ornstein discussed the possibility of Liverpool signing a centre-back in the January transfer window after Virgil van Dijk suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in last weekend’s Merseyside Derby which is set to see him spend a ‘lengthy’ amount of time on the sidelines.
It may be fair to say that Van Dijk has been a major part of the Reds’ success in recent years since he joined the club in January 2018, with the centre-back finishing as the runner-up to Lionel Messi for the 2019 Ballon d’Or and with pundit Tony Cascarino recently hailing the Dutchman as “the best defender in the world” and claiming that Jurgen Klopp’s side will be “completely different” without him.
Following Van Dijk’s injury, former Reds defender Jamie Carragher called for the club to sign a new centre-back in January, with the pundit explaining that this would have been the club’s “next big signing” anyway. However, during this recent YouTube video, Ornstein cast some doubt over the likelihood of Liverpool signing a centre-back in January.
He said: “The big question is how Liverpool react, with many eyes already focused on the January transfer window. As far as I know, that level of conversation is yet to take place internally, they won’t make a snap call on the matter. They’re not ruling out a January signing but as things stand, I don’t sense it’s likely.
“January’s always a tricky market, prices are high, availability low, we don’t know what finances Liverpool would have at their disposal, a player coming in would need time to adapt, they also wouldn’t just have to be at Liverpool’s level, they’d need to be an improvement on what the club already have.
“Liverpool aren’t normally a chequebook club, in this sense. They don’t tend to throw money at these sorts of problems. Yes – they signed Van Dijk himself and Alisson [Becker] for big money but we’d all agree that they were needed and it was money extremely well spent.
“From what I hear, Jurgen Klopp would prefer to rely on internal resources in this case [and] the ability of he and his staff to coach players up to the required level.”
Do you think Liverpool will sign a centre-back in January?
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TIF Thoughts on what Ornstein had to say about the possibility of Liverpool signing a centre-back in January…
As Ornstein explained, it’s not unprecedented for Liverpool to spend big money on this very position, as they spent a then-world record transfer fee for a defender to bring Van Dijk himself to the club.
While Ornstein justified this transfer fee by saying that it proved to be “money extremely well spent” on an area that “needed” strengthening, perhaps this area will once again prove to be a significant concern with Van Dijk on the sidelines, as Cascarino seems to think it will be and if so, then we feel it wouldn’t be too surprising to see the Reds splash out on a January centre-back signing again if Klopp fails to coach other Liverpool players up to the required standard between now and the new year, which seems to be his current plan, according to Ornstein.