With Jarell Quansah leaving for Bayer Leverkusen, Liverpool are looking light at centre-half – so which way will The Reds look for recruits?
RAFAEL Benitez was fond of the ‘short blanket’ analogy to discuss transfer policies and, by association, the balance of his teams.
“The ‘short blanket’…if you cover your head, you have your feet cold, but if you cover your feet, you have your head cold.”
In other words, you might have the best midfield in the world, a fact we used to sing to him back in 2009 in the days of Steven Gerrard, Xabi Alonso, Mo Sissoko and Javier Mascherano, but there’ll be other parts of the pitch which are a little cold. By the time you’ve sorted them, your midfield’s gone a bit flat. You can’t win. It’s like painting the Forth Bridge. Once you’ve finished, it needs another lick of paint.
No manager is completely happy with their lot. Even our first European Cup-winning team had a winger in Steve Heighway playing slightly ahead of Kevin Keegan as a number nine. We had two strikers in David Fairclough and David Johnson on the bench, but Bob Paisley went with Heighway all the same. Just as well, really. He laid on the first two goals.
You’d imagine that Arne Slot is very happy with his midfield. This is surprising as many people were never completely satisfied with his predecessor’s middle third, despite the near constant success. The Premier League Champions have a hell of a midfield. We even have a more than decent substitute midfield. That bit’s warm.
Bit by bit, the issues are being addressed. The right back goes and is replaced pretty much instantly. The left back is rumoured to follow his mate to Madrid, and we bring in Milos Kerkez before we’ve even entered July.
The number nine and maybe the possible departure of Luis Diaz may need some examination and even then, we’re being linked with some pretty big hitters if Darwin Nunez goes. I imagine he will, and I think he does too.
So it was a surprise to see Jarell Quansah go to our new best mates at Bayer Leverkusen.
Not that a move was ever unlikely — I’ve often thought that there’s something about Jarell which doesn’t quite sit with the manager, particularly since that opening day half time substitution at Portman Road last August — but in terms of cover, we’ve found another cold bit the short blanket hasn’t covered.
With rumours of Ibou Konate attracting interest from PSG and, almost inevitably from Real Madrid, uncertainty about Joe Gomez’s Anfield career and the half-hearted use of Wataru Endo as a centre back, it’s strange that we should be a man down. Also, that we may be starting the Bournemouth game with three new lads in the back four, which is bold to say the least.
The blanket has been pulled again. The defence could do with a bit of covering up.
At time of writing, Marc Guehi doesn’t know which changing room he’ll be in at the Community Shield and there are rumours of talks with Jorrel Hato of Ajax, which makes me wonder if Quansah was always on the transfer list.
What’s nice is that in a busy summer, we only really have two places to nail down – the nine and a third-choice centre-half. I suspect Arne will be happy with Diogo Jota for at least another season, but the centre half has become the priority. I never saw that coming on the day of the trophy lift. Maybe an upgrade if needed, but not a lack of personnel.
No panic yet, though. Luckily, there’s still a long way to go.
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