Report: Liverpool set to make fresh approach for ‘exceptional’ defender after Gomez injury blow

Liverpool are reportedly set to step up their pursuit of a new centre-back after Joe Gomez left the Reds’ pre-season tour to Asia.

Shortly before the match against AC Milan on Saturday, it was confirmed that the 28-year-old would return to Merseyside for treatment on a minor Achilles injury, leaving Arne Slot with only two senior centre-backs available.

Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate played 45 minutes each in Hong Kong, with Ryan Gravenberch and Kostas Tsimikas both redeployed in unfamiliar central defensive roles to compensate for the loss of our longest-serving current player.

The recruitment of another option in that area of the pitch now seems paramount for Liverpool in the final few weeks of the summer transfer window, and the Reds could duly acclerate the pursuit of a long-time target.

Liverpool set to make Marc Guehi approach

According to Football Insider, the Premier League champions continue to hold a ‘concrete’ interest in Marc Guehi and are expected to make a fresh approach for the Crystal Palace defender soon.

The report added that the 25-year-old would prioritise a move to Anfield over any other suitor, although the Eagles will likely stand firm on their £50m valuation of the player, who’s due to be given reassurances by Slot regarding his regularity of game-time.

Signing Guehi must now be a priority for Liverpool

Having sold Jarell Quansah to Bayer Leverkusen and seen Gomez succumb to another injury, the need for Liverpool to bring in another centre-back this summer couldn’t be more glaring.

The Reds have replenished their options in several parts of the squad since the end of last season, but no new central defenders have arrived despite that being one of the few areas on the pitch where we’d been light on cover.

Richard Hughes mightn’t have been at Anfield when we were last the defending Premier League champions in 2020/21, but our current sporting director will have seen from afar how our hopes of retaining the title collapsed due to a severe centre-back shortage.

Liverpool can’t afford another campaign of depending on midfielders to do a job in defence or throwing in callow academy starlets at the deep end if Slot’s squad is decimated at the back.

Palace will understandably try hard to keep Guehi, even with him now in the final year of his contract and reportedly unlikely to agree an extension, but a move for the Eagles defender must now be the priority for LFC, even ahead of an opportunistic pursuit of Alexander Isak.

With the Reds set to bank just over £65m from the impending sale of Luis Diaz, the bulk of that top-up should immediately go towards a raid on Selhurst Park for the England international, who former Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate hailed as ‘exceptional‘ at Euro 2024.

The importance of that potential acquisition can’t be overstated.