Pundit insists club need reinforcements only four months after spending £446m
Pundit Jamie Carragher believes Liverpool need to go into the transfer market in January amid a considerable drop in form under Arne Slot.
The ex-Liverpool player insisted that the club’s heavy summer investment has not addressed key weaknesses in Slot’s squad.
Liverpool spent around £446m ahead of the season, adding seven senior players including Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz for substantial fees. But they sit eight points off the Premier League summit after a 3-0 defeat at Manchester City and have struggled to summon anything close to the performances that saw them run away with the league last season.
Carragher said it should be remembered that several players left Liverpool in the summer.
“Liverpool need to buy a centre-back,” said Carragher. “They should have bought a centre-back in the summer, they didn’t. And then the one centre-back they did buy, Leoni, a young Italian player, looked fantastic in the game that he played. Unfortunately, he got an ACL injury, so we won’t see him until next season.
“I can go through the team of last season. [Kostas] Tsimikas, the manager didn’t really have confidence in him, so you needed to buy a left-back.
“[Jarrell] Quansah moved on, the manager didn’t really have confidence in him. They brought a young player in, Leoni, but still they need another body.
“They had to replace Trent [Alexander-Arnold]. Harvey Elliott moved on, but again, the manager didn’t have much confidence in him, so we went and bought another No 10 in [Florian] Wirtz.
“[Darwin] Nunez, the manager’s never had confidence in him, so we just went and brought in [Alexander] Isak, and obviously we’ve got the tragic situation of Diogo Jota.”
Carragher also questioned the decision to sign two expensive centre-forwards in the same window. Liverpool first made an approach for Alexander Isak, then at Newcastle. After the club rejected their offer, they went and signed Hugo Ekitike for £79m. But when Isak eventually became available, they went ahead and paid nearly double, a £125m fee, for Isak.
The pundit confessed it left him “scratching my head a little bit”.
Carragher said: “When you’ve spent that type of money, and it just becomes one or the other, it doesn’t feel very Liverpool-like to me, or certainly the way we’ve conducted our transfer business in the last few years.”
