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There is a common misconception among Liverpool fans that the club themselves do not recognize the need for an elite level defensive midfielder.
For many fans, an addition in a holding role has been the biggest request in the last two summer windows, yet the lack of definitive action on that front has only reinforced the feeling that it is being neglected internally.
But that is to ignore that several attempts have, in fact, been made to fix this issue over the past few years – only they have been unsuccessful.
For example, Liverpool fell in love with the brilliant Aurelien Tchouameni during his two seasons at Monaco and would have gone to great lengths to sign him in 2022 had the player’s camp not made it clear early on that they only wanted Real Madrid.
Unfortunately for the Reds, that tumbling was further exacerbated by their mistaken assumption that changes in the managerial role could wait until next summer, which proved to be decidedly wrong due to Fabinho’s sudden and unexpected decline.
And to make matters worse, all subsequent efforts to correct the problem also failed.
A failure of their own making
The most egregious of these failures was last summer’s attack by Moises Caicedo, who had been watched since his days at Independiente del Valle and received rave reviews about his quality and character from then-Brighton team-mate Adam Lallana.
The uncomfortable truth is that Liverpool deserve their share of the blame for what happened, having cut all contact with the player’s camp in the six months before his departure from Brighton due to their belief that he would join Chelsea.
This eventually became a self-fulfilling prophecy when Caicedo turned down a £111m move to Anfield as he felt key figures at Stamford Bridge were more adamant about signing him.
That failure left Liverpool to pick from a defensive midfield market that several recruitment sources described as lacking top-quality options before the peak.
And, although social media disagreed, praising Florentino Luis at Benfica or Ibrahim Sangare at PSV Eindhoven in response, the seasons the pair have just enjoyed are proof enough that the Reds’ judgment was correct.
Endo’s influence
In the end, Wataru Endo was instead accepted as a short-term solution, and his value was underlined by a season that brought several good performances, a major trophy and a return to the Champions League.
However, it’s also worth noting that the Japanese is now 31 years old and has increased Liverpool’s options in central midfield without being the pinnacle, truly world-class leading midfielder they so desire.
This has led to problems with numbers in the engine room, which is best underlined by the fact that Thiago and Stefan Bajčetić managed a combined 102 minutes in all competitions last term and still barely missed a goal.
As such, even the departure of one of that pair hasn’t completely alleviated the bloat or solved the problem of the team being too heavy on #8s rather than specialist carriers – a problem that will be exacerbated if Arne Slott sticks to his preferred 4 -2-3 -1.
It is this imbalance in the squad coupled with the uncertainty about what the new coach wants that makes it particularly difficult to predict what will happen next in terms of retaining the midfield.
As in recent years, the Reds are still clearly tracking that market, meaning links with Alan Varela at Porto and Atalanta’s Ederson cannot be so easily collapsed.
But with so much up in the air — and not forgetting that Slott and his sporting director Richard Hughes don’t officially start in their roles until June 1 — it remains to be seen whether the admiration from afar will translate into a concrete move for the number. 6 this time.
Either way, Liverpool’s need for a genuine replacement for Fabinho promises to be one of the more intriguing stories of their summer, as it has been for the past two years.
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