Barcelona ace Thomas Vermaelen has sustained an injury setback and it could reportedly force the club to sign a new defender in January.
The Catalan giants are dangerously light in that department, as while Samuel Umtiti continues to receive treatment on his knee injury, that leaves Gerard Pique and Clement Lenglet as the only two real options available to coach Ernesto Valverde.
That’s far from ideal given that they will be looking to compete on multiple fronts this season, and so they could choose to bolster that area of the squad in the January transfer window.
According to Mundo Deportivo, that decision could now be made for them, as with Vermaelen suffering an injury setback which rules him out for a month, it’s suggested that given his ongoing injury woes and those of Umtiti, signing a new defender seems necessary.
Diego Llorente, Jorge Mere and Andreas Christensen are three names put forward as possible solutions, and so it remains to be seen if any of that trio arrive in January to offer a helping hand to Barcelona in the second half of the campaign.
Given that they’ve conceded 19 goals in 16 La Liga games so far this season, giving them the joint-worst defensive record of the top seven sides, it is clearly an area in which they must improve if they wish to continue to lead the way domestically and challenge in Europe.
With ongoing question marks over the availability and reliability of the likes of Umtiti and Vermaelen, perhaps the sensible solution is to bring in another defensive star to provide quality depth and competition to Pique and Lenglet moving forward.
