According to The Athletic’s Liverpool reporter James Pearce, Jurgen Klopp and his new sporting director Jorg Schmadtke are still looking for at least one more midfielder this summer.
Liverpool confirmed their first summer signing last week with Alexis Mac Allister making the move from Brighton and Hove Albion in a £35m deal.
The Argentine World Cup winner is an exciting prospect in the much-needed midfield rebuild ahead of next season and will surely help to improve the performances in the centre of the pitch.
Both Naby Keita and James Milner have also confirmed their next steps with the former number eight joining Bundesliga side Werder Bremen, whilst Milner adds depth to Brighton’s midfield following Mac Allister’s departure.
Now it will be important for Liverpool to continue their pursuit to inject some more energy and fresh perspectives into the midfield personnel, and if the speculation has any substance it is looking promising.
In an article written for The Athletic, Pearce claims the recruitment team are in no rush to secure their targets this summer, but ideally, Klopp would like business completed by July 8th – when the squad returns for pre-season.
It is further revealed that Kouadio ‘Manu’ Kone, Khephren Thuram, Gabri Veiga, Romeo Lavia and Ryan Gravenberch are the players under consideration at this time, however, is not a definitive short-list.
Our thoughts on Liverpool’s transfer window so far…
With the transfer market only officially opening yesterday it is still early days and hard to tell which approach Liverpool will take in terms of getting the right business done.
Something all the aforementioned transfer targets have in common is youth and potential, which offers a slight insight into the profile of players the club are looking at and gives the impression that Klopp wants to build a squad to offer long-term solutions versus a short-term fix.
Indeed, it will come as a huge relief to the Anfield faithful that the club have identified a number of high quality midfielders as it is without a doubt a pain-point that has urgently needed addressing for some time.
Having said that, with Joel Matip in the last year of his contract next season and Virgil van Dijk reaching the latter stages of his career – turning 32 years old next month – it would be advantageous to sign another centre-back if possible.
Whilst Ibrahima Konate is proving that he can be relied on to comfortably compete for a position in the centre-back partnership, the remaining defensive options leave much to be desired.
With that being said, there is still plenty of work to be done on the red side of Merseyside, but it should be an interesting and potentially exciting transfer window for Liverpool fans.
