Star jets out as Liverpool's centre-back search steps up

Liverpool are on the hunt for a centre-back as their defensive situation is constantly changing.

Despite agreeing a new contract in November 2024, we saw Jarell Quansah join Leverkusen this summer for a deal of around £35m. The young Englishman will now need to be replaced accordingly.

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Finding someone to play the third centre-back role behind Virgil Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate is easier said than done, even though the captain is only contracted until 2027 and the Frenchman is assessing his options while in the middle of contract talks with the club right now.

It's plausible that Liverpool have a pathway available into the team to play a starting role, but if the fans' hopes and wishes are met, then any new signing might be resigned to the bench for the season.

Liverpool's defensive problems evolve once more

But the afternoon, we were given yet another reason to suggest that the Reds will be in the market for a centre-back and that is primarily off the back of Joe Gomez's inability to be regularly available.

It's true that Liverpool have three players that can play the position of need, but in reality, we're actually talking about two, because sadly Gomez can't be relied upon across an entire season.

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Throughout his 10-year spell with us, we've seen a mixture of different campaigns. At times, he's played a full role in the team, breaching the 3000-minute mark, but at others, he's been absent.

Last season was sadly an example of the latter, completing 886 minutes across all competitions and this afternoon, he was dismissed from Liverpool's preseason tour of Asia with an injury concern.

In a statement, the club said: "The defender is returning to Merseyside to undergo treatment on an Achilles issue at the AXA Training Centre." It's his sixth hamstring, tendon or ligament-related injury.

As such, the club will have to assess things slightly differently moving forward, because the defender that will be brought in will need to take on Gomez and Quansah's previous roles of supplementing the workloads of the main two, and the ideal candidate would be Marc Guehi.

The Crystal Palace captain is entering the prime of his career and he's had just one major injury in his career, which was related to his knee in the 2023/24 campaign. Beyond that, he's been fine.

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So we will all have to keep an eye out for any movement with regard to centre-back targets to replace Quansah, but the reality is that a replacement for Gomez should also be on the shopping list.

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