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Liverpool need a long-term centre-back but their issues can be fixed on the training groundDefensive issues have been present throughout pre-season for Liverpool and Mathias Honsak’s goal for Darmstadt on Monday was a prime example of the problems facing the Reds. I think it’s clear that Liverpool need to be buying at least one centre-back during the next 12 months, and in an ideal world, one would be signed in this window. Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate are clearly the starting pair, and as good as any in the league when at their best, but beyond that, Joel Matip is 31 and looks a player whose best days are behind him, while Joe Gomez has not played regularly as a centre-back in almost three years, and will surely be needed to cover at right-back this season.I’m not sure whether Jarell Quansah, 20, is ready to step up after just a handful of professional games in League One with Bristol Rovers. He could probably do with a loan. And so looking at the options, and some of the issues we’ve seen in pre-season, particularly with Matip, it feels like a defensive signing is needed. Ideally, it would be a young player who could develop over the next 12 months before taking over when Matip’s contract expires, but the trouble is that there is still so much to do in terms of finishing the midfield rebuild! That has to be the priority before anything is spent on a new centre-back.
I do also think that the ‘issues’ we have seen in pre-season would not necessarily be solved by simply signing a centre-back. Much of it stems
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