Reliable football journalist David Ornstein has been discussing whether or not Liverpool will look to sign a new centre-half in the upcoming January transfer window.
This comes after Ornstein recently made an appearance on The Athletic’s Ornstein & Chapman Podcast, where he spoke about a number of topics concerning the Merseyside club.
During the podcast, Ornstein was asked if Liverpool will look to sign a new centre-half in January due to the fact that Joe Gomez and Virgil van Dijk are both out with serious injuries.
In response, Ornstein had this to say on the matter.
He said: “Only from what I’ve heard from speaking to multiple people with really good knowledge of the situation – obviously, when Virgil van Dijk suffered his potentially season-ending injury, there was a lot of talk about whether Liverpool would replace him, even more so with Joe Gomez’s injury on England training duty last week, and now for many people, it’s sort of inconceivable that they won’t strengthen in January.
“But just reflecting my conversations – and it’s not saying they definitely won’t; it’s not saying things won’t change – but right now, from what I’m hearing, they’re not planning to sign a centre-back in January and the hope is that they will be able to go with what they’ve got, and their results won’t deteriorate, and they won’t suffer even more injuries in that position.”
Van Dijk suffered a serious knee injury back in October during Liverpool’s 2-2 draw against Everton that required the Dutchman to have surgery.
Earlier this month, Gomez also had to have surgery to repair a tendon in his left knee after suffering an injury whilst away with the England national team.
TIF Thoughts on David Ornstein’s comments on Liverpool not looking to sign a new centre-half…
As well as Van Dijk and Gomez who are likely to be out of action until 2021, Liverpool currently have a number of other players out with injuries at the moment (per Transfermarkt).
Given the seriousness of Van Dijk and Gomez’s injuries and the fact that they may not even play again this season, it would make sense, in our view, for Liverpool to consider bringing in at least one new centre-half in January to help fill in while the duo are out of action if a deal is financially viable for the club.
Do you think Liverpool should sign a defender in January?
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With Liverpool having a number of domestic and European fixtures left to play this season, it could be argued that squad depth will be important to the Reds, and therefore, sticking with what they have in defence for the remainder of the campaign could be considered a huge call from Jurgen Klopp’s men.