Liverpool’s abundance of ‘world-class’ centre-halves presents something of a double-edged sword for Jurgen Klopp ahead of the next campaign.
It’s one the German will revel in, however, after palming away concerns over a selection crisis and insisting that ‘we’ll need the quality’ after Joe Gomez agreed a contract extension to keep him at Anfield until the summer of 2027.
“And Joey is really a world-class defender, no shadow of a doubt.
“He believes in this project, he believes in himself and he wants to be a Liverpool FC player. And we want the team to stay obviously.
“I know what people say in these moments: ‘But you have him, you have him, you have him.’ We’ll need the quality and we have the quality.
“And Joe Gomez when he played was outstanding for us and he will be outstanding for us.”
Danny Murphy had praised the German’s men for securing the long-term future of the 25-year-old, though did question why the Englishman was prepared to sign on the dotted line as the club’s ‘fourth-choice’ centre-half.
Though an injury crisis of a similar magnitude to that which we suffered in the follow-up campaign to our first title win of the Klopp era should be considered far from likely to reappear, it would be ill-advised on our part to sacrifice depth where top talent is available and ready to commit.
Having previously partnered Virgil van Dijk in the heart of our defence in our title-winning season, there’s no question that the former Charlton prospect is more than well-equipped to break back into the first-XI.
He’ll have top competition fighting him every step of the way in the form of Joel Matip and Ibrahima Konate, though competition has certainly never hurt our players’ progress before.
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