Journalist Darren Lewis believes that Liverpool are looking at bringing in a centre-back, but that it might not necessarily be for this window.
The subject of centre-back has been an interesting one for Liverpool this season. Following the injury to Virgil Van Dijk early on in the campaign, Jürgen Klopp’s men have been linked with a number of defenders to take the Dutchman’s place, with the likes of Dayot Upamecano and Ozan Kabak just some of the names that have been linked.
There hasn’t been much movement on that front in terms of concrete news that they could sign someone, but according to Lewis that doesn’t mean they aren’t trying. Speaking on the TalkSPORT Gameday Football Podcast, Lewis claims that the club are looking for someone, but they aren’t desperate when it comes to getting the deal across the line.
He said: “I think it’s a misconception that they’re not looking. They tend to know who the person they want is and I think that’s the case now, and they will wait for that player. They are shopping at the top tier. And so if it’s the case that they have to wait until summer, it might just be that they trust Klopp to do that.”
Can Liverpool win the Premier League without Van Dijk?
YES
NO
TIF Thoughts regarding Lewis’ thoughts on Liverpool and their transfer activity…
Lewis’ words might come across a little weird in some circles. Given how short they are of options in defence, meaning players like Fabinho – normally a defensive midfielder – has had to fill in for the past few months, logic would dictate they’d be desperate to fix the problem as soon as possible.
But the fact is that Liverpool haven’t been all that bad compared to where they were last year. Whilst they have conceded seven more goals than they did after the same amount of games last term, you can put part of that down to the anomaly of their 7-2 defeat to Aston Villa.
So the drop-off without Van Dijk isn’t really all that bad, and they clearly aren’t desperate to bring in that big name for someone who’s only going to be asked to cover for five or so months until the end of the campaign.
If the right move comes along, then it seems they might be tempted, but right now it’s not a big concern of theirs. Or as Lewis says, they might make that big move in the summer when they can really reassess things and what the club’s future looks like.