There’s a widespread false impression amongst Liverpool supporters that the membership itself doesn’t recognise the necessity for an elite-level defensive midfielder.
For a lot of followers, an addition within the holding position has been the largest requirement of the final two summer season home windows, and but a scarcity of definitive motion on that entrance has solely cemented the sensation that it’s being neglected internally.
However that’s to disregard that a number of makes an attempt have, in truth, been made to treatment this challenge lately – it’s simply that they haven’t been profitable.
For instance, Liverpool had fallen in love with the sensible Aurelien Tchouameni throughout his two seasons at Monaco and would have pushed exhausting to signal him in 2022 had the participant’s camp not made it clear early on that he solely wished Actual Madrid.
Sadly for the Reds, that snub was compounded by their mistaken assumption that tweaks within the anchor position may wait till the next summer season, a stance confirmed to be emphatically fallacious by Fabinho‘s sudden and sudden decline.
And to make issues worse, any subsequent efforts to right the issue additionally fell flat.
A setback of their very own making
Probably the most high-profile of those failures was final summer season’s swoop for Moises Caicedo, who had been watched since his days with Independiente del Valle and got here with rave evaluations relating to his high quality and character from then-Brighton teammate Adam Lallana.
The uncomfortable reality is that Liverpool deserve their share of the blame for what transpired, having scaled again any contact with the participant’s camp within the six months previous to his departure from Brighton as a result of their perception he would be a part of Chelsea.
This in the end turned a self-fulfilling prophecy when Caicedo turned down a £111 million transfer to Anfield as a result of he felt that key figures at Stamford Bridge had been extra persistent of their want to signal him.
That setback left Liverpool selecting from a defensive midfield market that a number of recruitment sources described as being in need of top-quality, pre-peak choices.
And, although social media disagreed with that take, touting the likes of Florentino Luis at Benfica or PSV Eindhoven’s Ibrahim Sangare as the reply, the seasons that pair have simply loved are proof sufficient that the Reds’ judgement was sound.
Endo’s influence
In the long run, Wataru Endo was as a substitute settled on as a short-term answer, and his worth was underlined by a season that introduced a number of fantastic performances, a serious trophy, and a return to the Champions League.
Nevertheless, additionally it is price noting that the Japanese is now 31 years outdated and has swelled Liverpool’s choices in central midfield with out being the peak-age, actually world-class holding midfielder so many want.
This has led to a numbers challenge within the engine room that’s greatest underlined by the truth that Thiago and Stefan Bajcetic managed a mixed 102 minutes throughout all competitions final time period and but have been barely missed.
As such, even the departure of one in every of that pair has not totally alleviated the bloat or solved the issue of the squad being heavy on No. 8s somewhat than specialist holders – a difficulty that will likely be additional exacerbated ought to Arne Slot stick with his most well-liked 4-2-3-1.
It’s this squad imbalance allied with uncertainty over what the brand new coach needs that makes it notably troublesome to foretell what occurs subsequent by way of holding midfield.
As they’ve been for the previous couple of years, the Reds are nonetheless clearly monitoring that market, which means hyperlinks to the likes of Alan Varela at Porto and Atalanta’s Ederson aren’t so simply shot down.
However with a lot up within the air – and never forgetting that Slot and his sporting director Richard Hughes don’t formally begin of their roles till June 1 – it stays to be seen whether or not admiring from afar will flip right into a concrete transfer for a No. 6 this time round.
Both manner, Liverpool’s want for a real Fabinho substitute guarantees to be one of many extra intriguing tales of their summer season, as has been the case for the final two years.
