It has been a busy transfer window for Richard Hughes and his team at Liverpool.
The Premier League champions have added Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez, Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike to their squad. There’s an expectation that Alexander Isak will soon trade playing at St James’ Park for turning out at Anfield in what would be for a British record transfer fee.
Trent Alexander-Arnold, Caoimhin Kelleher, Jarell Quansah and Luis Diaz have all departed already while the likes of Harvey Elliott, Tyler Morton, Darwin Nunez and Federico Chiesa all look set to leave the club before the start of the new campaign.
Despite all of this, the Reds haven’t addressed a problem area. Once the signing of Isak is tied up, it has to be a priority if Liverpool are determined to retain their Premier League crown.
A new centre-back is a necessity.
The sale of Quansah to Bayer Leverkusen left Slot with just three senior options in Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate and Joe Gomez. The latter missed the 4-2 defeat against AC Milan recently with an injury.
The Dutch manager claimed it was a ‘minor’ injury but with Gomez’s injury record, it would be incredibly naive to bank on his availability meaning Liverpool have just two reliable defenders right now.
And one of them could well be on the move with Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain reportedly keen on Konate.
The France international has just 12 months left on his deal and recent reports have hinted at a potential £50million move away from Anfield this summer.
Liverpool are in dire need of defensive reinforcements. Not just one new centre-back, but two. That is the elephant in the room right now that everyone appears to be ignoring because the focus is on Isak.
Marc Guehi was on the club’s radar last month and a move looked to be a formality at one stage after the Crystal Palace captain reportedly rejected a move to Arsenal.
However, the Eagles are seemingly pricing the England international out of a move and it now appears as though he’ll leave on a free transfer next summer.
Parma centre-back Giovanni Leoni has been linked with the Merseyside club but now appears likely to join Inter, if the Serie A giants can raise the funds needed.
There have been tentative links to other centre-backs, such as Konstantinos Koulierakis, but nothing concrete just yet.
If Liverpool had depth, it wouldn’t be a problem. They could take their time to find the right player for them. The Reds don’t have the depth though. Far from it, in fact.
And while Slot is doing his best to downplay this weak point within the squad, it is very much something that desperately needs to be addressed.
Speaking after the loss to Milan, the former Feyenoord boss listed his options at centre-back, saying: “I’m looking to my left [Virgil van Dijk] and I don’t think we have a concern at centre-back. In terms of depth? I think Ryan [Gravenberch] showed today, by the way, that he can play in that position. He did it last season as well.
"Although we all know we favour him as a No. 6. Wata [Endo] can play there. Joe Gomez only has a minor injury, he has been good for us last season as well. We have enough options left. But it’s true that Jarell Quansah left and we haven’t replaced him yet."
Liverpool have put themselves in this position.
They’re spending freely this summer and while sales will bring the net spend down significantly, there’s no reason a team with a near £500million outlay should be using centre-midfielders at centre-back.
If your first choice defensive midfielder is your fourth choice centre-back, when two of your centre-backs have a history of injuries, you’re in trouble.
Konate played a career high 2,600 league minutes last term but the 26-year-old regularly has spells on the sidelines. Previous injuries aren’t a predictor of things to come but you can’t be banking on the former RB Leipzig man to play 30+ games every season now.
Liverpool have taken a similar gamble before.
During the 2020/21 campaign, the year they went into the season as reigning champions, Dejan Lovren wasn’t replaced and the Reds headed into the season with three senior centre-backs.
By the New Year, they’d lost Van Dijk, Joel Matip and Gomez to injury. Jordan Henderson and Fabinho had stints in defence before Jurgen Klopp turned to Rhys Williams and Nat Phillips.
If the Reds are serious about retaining their title, something they couldn’t do under Klopp, they can’t be repeating the mistakes he made. Defensive midfielders can’t be viewed as centre-back options.
The title success last season was primarily tied to the attack, but the defence pulled their weight. The Reds had the second best defensive record in the Premier League and kept the most clean sheets.
Slot’s side also had the second lowest expected goals conceded total (38.7), a figure that was inflated after the title was won with four games to spare.
Hughes had done a remarkable job to freshen up the full-back positions and revamp the attack, but it’ll all be for nothing if he can’t sort the defence out.
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