Liverpool journalist Paul Gorst has been sharing his thoughts on how the Merseyside club could react in the wake of Virgil van Dijk’s injury.
This comes after Gorst recently made an appearance on a bonus episode of the Liverpool Echo’s Blood Red Podcast that was released after it was revealed that Van Dijk will undergo surgery on his knee as a result of the injury he suffered during the Reds’ recent 2-2 draw against Everton.
During the episode, Gorst had this to say on how the Reds could react to this injury to Van Dijk and how they could potentially sign a new centre-back to replace the Dutchman during his absence.
He said: “It’s going to be interesting to see how Liverpool react to this, will they go into the transfer market for a free transfer? I’m not sure who’s available at this point, someone who’s going to be good enough [to come] into the Liverpool squad, never mind the Liverpool team.
“That remains to be seen but I think they’re going to have to act, let’s face it, they can’t go through the entire season if Van Dijk is out for, certainly what’s going to be the majority of it you feel with just the two centre-backs and Fabinho as cover so that will be something that I think they will have to look at and it’s just really horrendous news.”
Van Dijk was forced off the pitch in the early stages of the match against Carlo Ancelotti’s side after a late tackle from Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford.
It was then announced that Van Dijk will be undergoing surgery on his knee to fix the issue but there is apparently no “specific timescale” on when the Dutchman can return to action as of yet.
Do you think Liverpool should sign a new centre-back to fill in for Van Dijk?
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TIF Thoughts on Paul Gorst’s comments on the possibility of Liverpool signing a new centre-half to fill in for Van Dijk…
With Liverpool currently having Joe Gomez, Joel Matip, and Sepp van den Berg as their other centre-backs and Fabinho who can also play there as Gorst mentioned in the podcast, it will be interesting to see whether or not the club chooses to sign another defender to fill the hole left by Van Dijk’s absence.
It all depends on whether or not Jurgen Klopp has enough faith in his current options to do a job in Van Dijk’s absence. However, if any of them were to pick up an injury then they would then be in deeper trouble so maybe adding extra cover in the defence wouldn’t be the worst decision in the world.