There is not much longer for Liverpool to sign a centre-back of any capacity.
The transfer window closes on Sunday night, and right now, our money is on nothing coming in the door – as crazy as that sounds given the season-ending injuries to Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez and the perpetual unavailability of Joel Matip.
James Pearce of the Athletic has begged the Reds to at least bring in a stop-gap loan option who can plug the gap until the summer, where we can likely buy a higher profile, bigger name.
“I know that money is tight in the current climate, but I couldn’t help but come away from Sunday thinking – ‘Liverpool need someone for the next 3/4 months – if that means a loan signing or a free agent, so be it,'” he told the Athletic’s Red Agenda podcast.
We’d still love the side to go for Real Madrid’s Eder Militao, who is available on loan and ticks many boxes – but so far we haven’t heard a reliable source claim it’s on the cards.
Other than that, you have the free transfer option of Neven Subotic, as Sokratis just penned terms with Olympiakos.
Rhys Williams is a lovely lad, but he can’t be expected to play regularly at centre-back for us – he was in the National League eight months ago and is a teenager.
As Pearce suggests, we’re getting desperate. It really does look like the injury to van Dijk is going to define our season, which is all the more infuriating given the circumstances in which it came about.
This cry for signing a CB is too little to late!. A blind one eyed dog could see it is needed. My concern now is how can a financial top ten club who one won a TWO titles are failing to defend their league title to such a degree that they even fail to qualify for the champions league in the following season. They have had half a season for a plan b and all the credit that Michael Edwards has accrued should leave him open for the sack if this goes wrong.
I’d agree Boots! And it’s not like there’s no precedent. Klopp has shown a willingness to bring in stopgaps in January; he brought in Steven Caulker in the same window a few years back as I recall. But when he says the funds aren’t there, given the world’s circumstances I think we have to understand the club has really been operating at a loss for some time now. Loan or not, player wages (for the type of player you mentioned) are a significant barrier.