There’s no doubting that Antonio Conte is a hugely effective manager in domestic competition, but there’s something about the Champions League that he just can’t figure out.
Inter Milan crashed out again this season despite being placed in a group they should’ve emerged from, so there will be a temptation for some of their players to leave in January.
Jurgen Klopp is doing his best to put on a brave face amid their defensive injury crisis, but they keep getting injury scares and it would be an almighty risk to take on the rest of this season without adding some kind of cover.
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A report from Goal has indicated that Liverpool have focussed their attentions in Inter’s Dutch internation defender Stefan de Vrij ahead of the January window, although it’s not clear if Inter would be happy to let him go.
One big positive about the Dutchman is he won’t just be seen as a short term fix as he’s 28 so has plenty of years left, while he’s played with Virgil van Dijk for his country so there should be a basic understanding between the pair if that became a long term starting partnership.
While that report stated that Inter don’t want to sell the defender, it’s worth noting that Football-Italia reported on some comments from Conte which suggested players will need to leave in January, so it’s definitely worth making an approach to see what it would take to sign him.