Liverpool did go into last season with only Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez as their senior starting options at centre-back, so the potential was always there for injuries to cause an issue.
Obviously what followed was some of the most horrendous luck you’ll ever see when it comes to injured players, but they will have the opposite problem next season if everybody is fit.
Nat Phillips and Rhys Williams have emerged as Premier League centre backs who are good enough for a back-up role, while Ben Davies has been completely forgotten about since his surprise arrival from Preston.
Ibrahima Konate has been a rumoured arrival for a while now, and it does appear that the fans can now feel comfortable that his arrival will be happening in the summer:
Ibrahima Konaté to Liverpool, done deal. Medicals already completed days ago. #LFC are gonna trigger €35m release clause in the next days and announce the signing from RB Leipzig. Here we go confirmed. ? #LFC
Personal terms agreed since April 23 – contract until June 2026. https://t.co/j4codIsBnD
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) May 25, 2021
That does potentially leave Ozan Kabak as the odd man out, while a report from German outlet Sport1 has even reported that Liverpool won’t be taking up the option to sign him and he’s now going to return to Schalke in the summer.
Interestingly one of the Sport1 journalists has also tweeted the news about Kabak going back to Germany, but they’ve added that RB Leipzig could be a potential suitor so it’s very possible that he could end up completing the circle by replacing Konate with the German side:
Confirmed: Liverpool FC has not activated the €23m release clause for Ozan Kabak. A permanente deal with #LFC is unlikely. The 21-year-old Turkish centre-back is targeted by RB Leipzig and Leicester City. #S04 urgently need to sell him this summer. @ozankabak4
— Patrick Berger (@berger_pj) May 25, 2021
That could be a good thing for him as he would likely be the 5th choice option if he stayed at Anfield so his playing time would be limited, while Leipzig have developed Konate and Upamecano over the past couple of seasons so there’s every chance that he’ll become a regular feature in a strong team if that move does happen.
In some ways it might be a surprise as Kabak didn’t do much wrong at Liverpool, but he’s not really needed and this could be the best thing for all parties.
Liverpool should sign Ozan kabak to replace injury prone Matip and still sign konate.