The first stage of Liverpool’s midfield evolution took place with the signing of Alexis Mac Allister last week. Concrete news of a second signing has been difficult to come by, with Khéphren Thuram seemingly in pole position on that front.
Alongside the ongoing overhaul in the middle of the park, attention has also been on the Reds’ backline. Ibou Konaté has emerged as Jürgen Klopp’s favoured partner for Virgil van Dijk, but questions have been asked about the suitability of Joël Matip and Joe Gomez as backups after a difficult season for both.
Links between the club and Bayern Munich’s Benjamin Pavard were strongly denied by Neil Jones on the last instalment of our Journo Insight show, whilst the likes of Micky van de Ven and Jurrien Timber have also been indexed to the Reds.
On our latest episode, we asked The Athletic’s James Pearce for his take on LFC’s defensive options.
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James said:
“The way it was explained to me was that it’s about planning where they don’t feel as if there’s like an absolutely acute need now to go out and buy a frontline centre-half.
“If the right one is out there, then they would do it as part of long-term succession planning on the basis that as things stand, they expect Matip to see out the final year of his contract.
“As it stands at the moment, Liverpool are not actively looking to shift him on, and he hasn’t told Liverpool that he that he wants to go.
“I just think they do need another young, athletic, dynamic centre half who can at least come close to giving you what Konaté gives you in terms of his physicality.
“I don’t think there are any real concrete names out there that I could say to you, ‘Yeah, he is 100% someone under serious consideration.’”
Redmen Reacts
This could be another case where the realities of squad management clash with the desires of the fanbase. Both Joël Matip and Joe Gomez have looked short of form and fitness over the past 12 months, and there has been an expectation that at least one of them should be moved on to make way for either a reliable understudy or to blood a long-term replacement for Virgil van Dijk. As we have seen with both Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, it is difficult to offload players who are under contract if they do not wish to leave.
However, Liverpool brought in the successors to both Sadio Mané and Roberto Firmino whilst those players were still at the club. They should be looking to do a similar thing this window if neither Matip nor Gomez are sold. Ibou Konaté’s injury record has been patchy since his arrival and it would be a major dereliction of duty to gamble on the fitness of our current centre-backs, especially after what happened in 2020/21.
TO HEAR MORE FROM JAMES ON THE LIKES OF VEIGA AND GRAVENBERCH, CLICK HERE
