Liverpool spent the best part of £450million during the summer transfer window but their rebuild appears to be nowhere near finished.
Injuries to players have exacerbated the situation at Anfield but the truth is the Reds weren’t ever properly equipped for a title challenge this season and if they managed to mount one, they would’ve been reliant on a lot of luck.
Arne Slot’s side needed at least one other centre-back signing, even after bringing in Giovanni Leoni, with Joe Gomez seemingly splitting his time as a squad player between right-back and centre-back, while Ibrahima Konate’s fitness is always a little questionable.
The attack also needed reinforcements despite the club spending almost £300million on Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike.
Yet there’s always a risk of doing too much too soon.
Some may even argue Liverpool did too much in the summer already. Bringing in more players would’ve further complicated the situation on Merseyside and ultimately slowed down the transition following the overhaul.
It needs to be done gradually. That’s likely why Richard Hughes left some glaring gaps in the squad. It was a case of getting by with what is there now and hoping the quality in attack bails the team out of certain situations.
To an extent, that did and has happened. There’s a reason that, despite being generally poor for the majority of the season, the Reds are in fourth position in the Premier League table right now.
In tight games, the individual quality in attack has proven to be the difference for the champions.
But with the January transfer window open and injuries racking up, maybe the Reds need to use the market if they’re wanting to mount an unlikely title challenge.
As of right now, the club is distancing itself from doing any business this month. David Ornstein of The Athletic published a piece stating that Liverpool’s summer focus is on a centre-back, Mohamed Salah is staying this month but it’s one to watch at the end of the campaign and there are no plans to bring in a right-back now even though Conor Bradley is out for the season.
Defensively, the Reds are down to the bare bones.
Leoni is out for the campaign with an ACL injury sustained against Southampton in the Carabao Cup. Bradley sustained a "significant" injury to rule him out of the rest of his club's season. Gomez has had a stint on the sidelines already this season while Jeremie Frimpong has already had multiple hamstring issues.
Slot isn’t necessarily keen on using the likes of Calvin Ramsay either. He said as much in his post-match press conference following the 4-1 win over Barnsley in the FA Cup.
“Trent [Alexander-Arnold] was leaving and Conor Bradley already replaced him last season a few times really well, and I think the year before I came also had a good spell.
“So I think he felt – and I felt the same – ‘this is now going to be your time’. Then he missed out on so many games because of injury already, because of mainly hamstring injuries. Coming back from that, being in the team, progressing, doing better and better, staying fit and then something like this happens.
“In a season where he thought before it started ‘this has to be my season’ and I thought the same, to maybe play six, seven or eight games is a big, big, big blow for him. I also think about Northern Ireland, where he’s trying to reach the World Cup, so it’s an enormous blow for him.
“But as a result of that, it’s a big blow for us as well – I hope that you don’t think that I would like to play Dominik Szoboszlai as a right full-back.
“But Jeremie Frimpong has to play a lot of minutes, comes also back from an injury, has missed three or four months of a lot of playing time.
“I liked him again today, by the way. But I have to make sure that he’s able to play again at the weekend, and then we go to Marseille and then we go to Bournemouth. It’s nine games in January with six defenders available. I have to manage it in the right way, and I have to give enormous compliments to the players who are fit that we are 11 games unbeaten in a row.”
The Reds have six defenders during this gruelling schedule and two of them have had injury issues this term. It is soon going to be a case of using square pegs in round holes.
Slot is likely going to be forced into using Szoboszlai at right-back. Curtis Jones might even have another cameo there, just as he did earlier in the season. Wataru Endo and Ryan Gravenberch might rack up some minutes at centre-back too as Slot juggles fitness and load management.
Transfer activity is a must this month
This, of course, could be eased if the Reds were to dip into the transfer market this month.
Liverpool aren’t a club who look for a short-term fix or solution. They often look for opportunities.
And while they won’t make a signing now that impacts their ability to improve the squad in the summer, the situation needs to be treated as an outlier rather than the norm.
The champions are in a battle for a top four finish. They’re still in the FA Cup and could do something in the Champions League. If there’s ever a time to solidify this group, it is now.
They can’t afford to head into March with Szoboszlai at right-back and Gravenberch at centre-back. As is, this is a real possibility. It weakens the team in the middle third and the defensive third.
Liverpool have gotten into the habit of doing the bare minimum in the transfer window and dressing it up as a win.
Right now, the bare minimum is signing a centre-back this month.
Choosing not to do that is nothing more than negligence and it makes Slot’s job that much more difficult, and the pressure is already on the Dutchman.
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