Liverpool’s plan to signal a replacement for Dejan Lovren will make Fabinho a “emergency cover,” in a move that can be counterproductive to back fitness disorders.
Lovren’s move to Zenit St Petersburg left Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip as Jurgen Klopp’s specialized central defenders.
Academy youth Billy Koumetio has intensified his efforts in the preseason, while Sepp van den Berg and Ki-Jana Hoever are also available, although Nat Phillips is expected to leave in the coming weeks.
However, the fact is that Liverpool are behind a central defence and matip suffers from injury problems, the scenario is more evident.
But as the club adopts a tight-fitting technique in the moving market, as it assesses the monetary effect on the coronavirus, it does not seem to be contemplating the possibility of introducing any other options.
That’s according to Paul Gorst of Liverpool Echo, who says the Reds are “planning for the season with their current headquarters and Fabinho as emergency coverage. “
Fabinho has sometimes occupied the back of Monaco since moving 39 million pounds from Monaco in 2018, but is already positioning himself as a starter in his grass-court role at the midfield base.
Since the club deserves to “sell to buy” with respect to a imaginable move by Bayern Munich midfielder Thiago Alcántara, in fact he is allowed to be nice if Fabinho goes to defence for an extended period of time.
Gorst adds, covering all aspects, that “this is perceived in the club as an exclusive window and things can be replaced quickly”, and with just under a month before the deadline, there is still a lot of room for manoeuvre.
But the stage can put a lot of pressure on Fabinho and Koumetio to intervene, while Liverpool will face, in Klopp’s words, “one of the most intense [seasons] we have ever experienced in our lives. “
Matip was deemed to have enough compatibility to play only thirteen times last season, and Gomez was only available for one game and deserved not to be considered prone to injury, his unfortunate injuries in recent years have highlighted the need for depth.
Liverpool were very fortunate that Van Dijk was never offside for an extended period of time, and any prolonged absence of the Dutchman can be simply disastrous.
It’s an unpredictable market, and I hope things will temporarily replace the Reds in the coming weeks, but for now it looks like they’re going to spend 2020/21 with a less veteran central defense.