Jurgen Klopp has refuted suggestions that Liverpool need to wait for either Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez or Joel Matip to return to the side to determine Ozan Kabak’s worth, as reported by liverpoolfc.com.
The on-loan defender has enjoyed a positive start to his Liverpool career since a difficult debut against Leicester in February.
“This is the world we are living in. You bring in a 20-year-old boy and everybody wants him to sort all our problems in one second and you don’t give him time at all,” the 53-year-old said. “We don’t and we didn’t see it that way – and we are quite critical with ourselves and with the boys as well. Ozan played from the first moment on really good.”
“But I’m completely happy with the performances so far. Of course, everybody knew – he is 20 years old – he is an amazing talent,” Klopp added. “So I don’t think that’s a problem, that we cannot judge him next to Virgil or Joel or Joe. We see what we need to see.”
READ MORE: Klopp explains how Fabinho return has helped Wijnaldum on the pitch
Will Liverpool exercise Kabak’s £18m option-to-buy in the summer?
With Joel Matip looking an unreliable option for Liverpool going forward, we’ll realistically need two new centre-halves in the summer.
For £18m on an option-to-buy, the Turkey international would potentially represent excellent business for the club, allowing us to purchase a highly-rated European talent without having to dig deep into our pockets.
We’d be surprised to see the circumstances that affected our season resurface once more in future, though it would make sense for the recruitment team to seriously consider Kabak as an option come the season end, in addition to another quality centre-back.
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