Liverpool sold fourth-choice centre-back Dejan Lovren this summer and can no longer enter the market to signal a replacement for the Croatian.
Lovren joined Zenit St Petersburg on a 10.9 million pound contract in July and has already played seven games with his new club, the Russian Super Cup.
Meanwhile, the Reds have used the money generated to point to a new left-back for Kostas Tsimikas, but still have to identify a new fourth selection at the center of the defense.
Joel Matip’s recent injury has highlighted the need for reinforcements, and with Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez on a mission abroad, it remains to be noted who will start Saturday’s friendly against Blackpool.
The highest likely candidate, surprisingly, is Billy Koumetio, 17, who caught the attention of Jurgen Klopp in the preseason.
Koumetio would possibly even have been inspired to the point of convincing Klopp and Michael Edwards that a replacement for Lovren does not want to be signed in the moving window, according to Athletic’s James Pearce.
Pearce described the club as “pretty relaxed” about the situation and wrote that Koumetio “did so well that he could be the fourth choice.”
Earlier this summer, the Reds were connected to a crowd of power plants, Aissa Mandi of Real Betis, Ozan Kabak of Schalke and Ben White of Brighton.
He even claimed that Liverpool were about to settle for a payment for Mandi, but a month later there was no motion about it.
Meanwhile, White has signed a new long-term contract with Brighton after the Seagulls turned down a series of donations from Leeds, where he was on loan last season.
During this period, Koumetio trained with Liverpool’s first team and participated in pre-season friendlys against Stuttgart and Salzburg, as well as being named to the Community Shield bench.
Klopp worked hard with the Frenchman, he was warned that he would return to Barry Lewtas’ under-23 team at some point.
Lovren played 15 games last season, and the fewest times he has played since joining the club in 2014, he was still a vital player on the team when he replaced Van Dijk and Gomez.
It remains to be noted whether the coach will accept as true with Koumetio to play as much as Lovren last season, but with Fabinho also an option, with teenagers Sepp van den Berg and Ki-Jana Hoever, the club’s “relaxed” position can simply be revealing.