Liverpool pushing for £50m ace who’d be Slot’s personal Van Dijk signing

Liverpool are flying excessive this season, with Manchester Metropolis‘s staggering collapse elevating hope that the Premier League title could be lifted at Anfield. Arne Slot‘s Reds are at present 4 factors clear with a recreation in hand, in any case.

However the season is lengthy and winding, and the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea have stored scorching on Liverpool’s heels, particularly so after the Merseyside derby was known as off as a result of opposed climate situations final weekend.

The festive interval is thought to foil many a hopeful Premier League staff, however Liverpool will probably be assured of their school to beat any wintry hindrances, particularly with key gamers coming back from damage.

Though the Anfield aspect have eclipsed expectations up to now this time period, there’s all the time room for enchancment, and it may be clever for FSG to sanction some winter switch exercise.

Why Liverpool want a January signing

Diogo Jota and Federico Chiesa have returned to first-team coaching, which has given a significant increase to the fluency and rotation of Liverpool’s frontline.

However a number of key members of Liverpool’s defence stay sidelined, and although the midfield has been spectacular this season, there is a sense that Liverpool might do with a brand new half to make sure the hard-working engine room retains purring as desires of silver start to grow to be extra concrete over the approaching months.

Liverpool missed out on their huge summer time switch goal final summer time, and although this hasn’t affected the midfield, the person in query would have been a beautiful addition – and he may nonetheless be.

Liverpool switch information

As per The Occasions, Actual Sociedad’s Martin Zubimendi is rising accustomed to the concept of leaving the Basque Nation in 2025, having rejected the concerted efforts of Richard Hughes to deliver him to Anfield at the beginning of the 2024/25 season.

The £50m-rated Spain worldwide’s openness to shifting has once more ‘alerted’ Slot and co, though he’s additionally on Man Metropolis and Arsenal’s radar. Although Liverpool’s summer time efforts will probably hand them a lift, their Premier League rivals will make sure to current compelling circumstances.

Zubimendi’s choice to reject the Reds’ method opened the door for an current member of Slot’s squad, however there is not any purpose why the pair can not cohabit within the quantity six position.

What Martin Zubimendi would deliver to Liverpool

Thus far this season, Ryan Gravenberch has began each fixture spanning Liverpool’s Premier League and Champions League campaigns, together with his withdrawal after the hour mark at St. James’ Park final week making for the primary minutes missed all time period.

Slot clearly has loads of belief within the dynamic, press-resistant midfielder, however he appeared fatigued at Newcastle. Slot would not favour Alexis Mac Allister within the deep-sitting position and Wataru Endo has scarcely featured all season, his tough-tackling model saved for late moments when Liverpool want grit.

Bringing a participant of Zubimendi’s ilk could possibly be the dimension supplier that Liverpool want to realize their lofty objectives over the enterprise months of the season.

Final time period, Jurgen Klopp‘s Liverpool had been knocked out of kilter towards the ultimate levels, burned out, and it is paramount that the identical problem doesn’t strike twice below Slot’s wing, for the Reds are in a implausible place to assert some silverware earlier than the summer time.

On condition that Gravenberch has been extensively considered one of many best midfielders on English shores this season, it is curious to notice that Zubimendi operates at the same degree over in La Liga, such is his high quality, with Spain supervisor Luis de la Fuente even hailing him as certainly one of “the very best centre-midfielders on this planet.”

It might be a implausible deal for Liverpool to make, one that may even elevate Slot’s fledgling challenge to an excellent greater degree. Who is aware of, maybe it will even show to be the Dutch coach’s personal Virgil van Dijk signing.

The membership’s towering captain has been a pillar of power and management since he arrived from Southampton in January 2018, in a deal value £75m – a world file for a defender on the time.

Earlier than Van Dijk’s arrival, Klopp’s Liverpool had been an entertaining staff with an unforgiving frontline, however they lacked stability and safety within the defensive third. It was a staff that pulled followers from their seats however threw them again down slumped after error-stricken, authority-bereft defensive shows.

Van Dijk modified all that, rewrote the narrative and supercharged a quest towards the largest honours. It was he who served because the transformative determine and cemented Klopp’s legacy as one of many biggest in Liverpool’s wealthy historical past.

Now, Zubimendi can do the identical. The 25-year-old Spaniard is already considered a “world-class” participant in his homeland, as Spanish soccer author Alexandra Johnson has mentioned, and is on the radar of England’s greatest and greatest outfits.

Like Gravenberch, he performs a unfastened and influential position within the centre of the sector, able to amassing and driving ahead whereas taking part in balls to well-placed teammates, who can then surge into harmful areas. Consider Mohamed Salah, arcing in from the appropriate, discovering a pointy supply that isn’t solely completely weighted however posted on the excellent time. With regularity.

He might mix with Trent Alexander-Arnold, whereas enhancing the qualities of Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai, maybe offering the latter with extra alternatives to lift his efficiency in entrance of objective.

Whereas £50m can be a giant winter outlay for FSG, it feels unreasonable to count on Gravenberch to proceed with none actual competitors throughout the period of the marketing campaign. Think about if the Netherlands star picks up a month-long damage within the new yr. Detrimental.

It is a deal that must be accomplished, particularly with Arsenal and Metropolis lurking. Having patiently waited to land Van Dijk after lacking out in the summertime of 2017, maybe the same situation may also happen with regard to Zubimendi’s seize.