Michael Edwards will solve his biggest headache with one genius transfer

Michael Edwards will solve his biggest problem with one transfer.

The former sporting director's position has come under fire in recent days with the revelation that FSG’s plan to buy a second club has become ‘dormant.’

Edwards was brought in at Liverpool to oversee not only the Reds’ operations from a football perspective but also potentially another club’s under the FSG’s umbrella.

This doesn’t seem likely to happen anymore or at least any time soon and that could see Edwards’ focus return solely back on Liverpool. Or leave the club. But you'd hope FSG would find a way to entice him to stay.

That would be great news because the club’s former sporting director was excellent at his job.

Edwards has always been attentive and listened to his recruitment team. Because of his nous for spotting talent he was able to find some absolute gems who would turn out to be superstars during his first tenure.

He also played a key role in Liverpool's exciting summer window and now there are big headaches to solve this summer, too. Which means Liverpool need Edwards.

Arguably the biggest headache that needs to be solved is replacing one of Edwards' biggest transfers.

During his time at Anfield, Liverpool rarely spent big. Except for when the club pursued a move for Virgil van Dijk.

At the time when Liverpool decided to spend £75m for the Dutchman, there were so many eyebrows raised. It seemed like a ludicrous amount of money to spend but it was exactly what Liverpool needed.

And it paid off massively. Almost a decade on, Van Dijk has become a club icon and has played a huge role in the Reds' success over the last few years.

Now, though he's approaching the end of his time at Anfield. He's getting on in years and entering his final year under contract. With just 12 months left of his deal by the time July comes around, Liverpool will need to think about the future and finding his heir.

Considering how pivotal Van Dijk has been, this is going to be the most difficult task of the new Edwards era.

Thankfully, Liverpool have already brought in a lot of exciting prospects. Jeremy Jacquet and Giovanni Leoni are two who can go onto play a key role in the club's post-Van Dijk era.

But they cannot be the only ones.

Liverpool need a centre-back who is more comfortable on the left-side of the defence and there is one perfect candidate for this role currently catching the eye in Serie A.

His name is Tiago Gabriel at Lecce. He's only 21-years-old and he's a towering player at 1.94 metres - just one centimetre shorter than Van Dijk.

Gabriel has been phenomenal in Serie A this season and he's arguably one of the best U23 centre-backs in Europe's top five leagues.

Out of U23 centre-backs, Gabriel ranks third for successful aerial duels in Europe's top five leagues (68.68%). Incidentally, the no.1 player for this metric in the last calendar year is Jeremy Jacquet who has won 69.7% of his aerial duels.

Gabriel isn't just strong in the air, he is quick and he reads the game brilliantly.

He ranks third for defensive duels won among U23 centre-backs, winning 76.93% of his 5.61 defensive duels per 90 minutes.

On top of that he's very comfortable and composed on the ball - although we haven't seen that side of his game as much because he is playing in a side that isn't dominating the ball.

But when he does get the ball Gabriel likes to play it forward.

He's a very, very good defender at such a very young age. Right now, looking at left-sided U23 centre-backs, Gabriel might be the best of the bunch, which is why he's the one to solve Edwards' biggest headache.

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