Former Liverpool midfielder Paul Ince has discussed his old club’s need to enter the transfer market for a new defender in the wake of Virgil van Dijk’s injury.
The ex-Red is unsure Jurgen Klopp urgently needs to sign a replacement for Van Dijk, despite the Netherlands international looking likely to miss much of, if not the entire rest of the campaign.
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Liverpool could perhaps do well to spend their way out of trouble, as it seems hugely risky to also rely on the injury-prone Joel Matip, while Fabinho also recently got himself injured whilst dropping back from midfield to fill in in defence.
Youngsters Nat Phillips and Rhys Williams have done well for Liverpool so far, but it remains to be seen how well they’ll cope with playing regularly for an entire season with games coming thick and fast against high quality opposition.
Ince seems to think it could be a gamble his old club take, however.
Ince, speaking exclusively to Ladbrokes at its launch of the 5-A-Side Bet on Leicester v Wolves, said: “I don’t see any need for Klopp to go out and replace Van Dijk. Obviously we don’t know how long Fabinho is going to be out for, but he’s got Joe Gomez – and to be fair to him, the young lad Nathaniel Phillips did well when he played at the weekend as well.
“The thing is with Liverpool, the way they play, they’re going to have a lot of possession, they see a lot of the ball, so their defence isn’t getting as worked as other teams in the league. So Klopp might just think ‘I’ll stick with what I’ve got in Gomez, Matip, Fabinho and Phillips’.”