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And he’s a fan of a certain RB Leipzig star.
Former Liverpool defender Phil Thompson spoke to Express Sport
recently about his hopes for the January transfer
window. He addressed the injury crisis in defense specifically,
considering that Virgil Van Dijk and Joe Gomez are both out of
action with serious injuries.
Speaking of Liverpool’s need to bring in another centre-back, he
said, “Yeah I said that Liverpool needed to sign someone as soon as
Van Dijk had got injured.
“I knew Fabinho could step in, I’ve seen him play, and as a
defender you see people’s awareness.
“I look at mistakes you make as a defender and his mistakes are
few and far between, that’s what makes him a good player to play at
the back.
“But I think he’s too good a holding-midfield player, one of the
best in Europe, so we need another centre-back, we really do.”
He thinks that the club’s management will have a tough challenge
considering the stature of Van Dijk, and Gomez’s recent rise to
prominence. He said, “I think Klopp and Michael Edwards are very
shrewd in what they bring in.
“They do a lot of the due-diligence on players, attitude-wise,
and rightly so, I suppose all other clubs do.
“But in the recent past we’ve had a lot of success with our
players so is there one or two out there that we could bring
in?
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“Is there an older one which would cost you a small amount of
money? But would get you by for a couple of years, two or
three-year contract.
“Or do you go for a younger one who is at the top of his game
and would cost a lot of money, and would expect to play every week?
So it’s a balancing act of where you go for a centre-back.”
But Thompson has one such player in mind – Dayot Upamecano, RB
Leipzig’s 22-year old French centre-back.
“The boy at Leipzig that we’re going to be playing against,
Upamecano, I know he had a bit of a torrid time at Old Trafford but
I do like him.
“I reckon he will cost a lot and he will want to be
playing.”
Upamecano has already been linked with Liverpool multiple times this year,
having played an impressive role in Leipzig’s backline for the past
four years. He is currently valued at around £54m and his contract
runs out in 2023.