Jurgen Klopp defends not signing a centre-back in the summer | OneFootball

Reds boss Jurgen Klopp has defended the club for not signing a new centre-back this summer.

Centre-back Dejan Lovren departed Liverpool for Zenit St Petersburg during the summer.

Despite that being the case, Klopp did not sign a centre-back to replace the Croatia international.

Klopp said that it is difficult to have “four world-class centre-halves” in the same squad.

“We went into the season with three centre-backs plus Fabinho as cover and some youngsters,” Klopp told reporters, as quoted by JOE.co.uk.

“It’s hard to have four world-class centre-halves. If anyone wants to tell us we made a mistake [by not signing a centre-back], I think Carragher mentioned already.

“There are a few reasons why they [pundits] don’t do this job.”

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ANFIELD WATCH VERDICT

We believe that it was a mistake to not sign a centre-back in the recent transfer window. The decision looks worse now because Virgil van Dijk recently picked up a serious knee injury.

Klopp stated that Fabinho is Liverpool’s fourth-choice centre-back.

The reality is, Fabinho is a midfielder. We don’t want the club to be relying on a midfielder to play in the heart of the defence from time-to-time.

In 28 Premier League appearances last season, Fabinho averaged a WhoScored player rating of 6.89, which highlights that he is a decent midfielder. With Fabinho playing as a centre-back from time-to-time, the Reds lose his ability in midfield.

Klopp talks about the fact that the club can’t have “four world-class centre-halves” in the squad.

We don’t believe Liverpool need four players of that calibre. A fourth-choice option could simply be an average player that could do a job for the odd game here and there.

A player that fits under the aforementioned criteria would not cost a fortune in the transfer market.

For the aforementioned reasons, hopefully Liverpool sign a proper fourth-choice centre-back option come January.