Jamie Carragher says, in January, Liverpool should act on their confidence in RB Leipzig defender Dayot Upamecano to substitute for Virgil van Dijk when he is out injured.
“I’m thinking Liverpool’s next summer’s major signing has to be a center-back,” said the former England defender on Sky Sports.
“Dejan Lovren went and they didn’t substitute him, because they only have three center-backs, and one of those is still injured, Joel Matip. Joe Gomez’s question marks are still open.”
“So there’s no doubt that Liverpool will have to go big next summer in the transfer market. That had to be pushed forward to January 1st now, whoever the summer deadline was. This isn’t the end of January. Not negotiating with a club is wasting time that month.”
He added: “There’s a young man they both spoke about in Leipzig, Dayot Upamecano, there’s talk about him.”
“If it’s Van Dijk’s profile, I think he’s only 6’1 “or 6’2″, so maybe he’s not that aerial, so if he’s the one they expected, then carry it on. Pay the extra money and do it on January 1st. Without Virgil van Dijk, that means going through 11 league games.”
“One thing to say about Virgil van Dijk is that they’ve only kept five clean sheets in the last 23 games, and Van Dijk played all of them, so it’s not like it was all perfect. We saw seven of them against Aston Villa, and we saw the Leeds match.”
“I think they have to go big with a signing.”
