Liverpool warned against investing in Alaba in January

A former Liverpool player argues the club shouldn’t reinforce their central defense as there’s enough quality in that position as it is.

Virgil van Dijk sustained serious knee damage in October and was subsequently ruled out for almost the entirety of the remainder of the season.

Liverpool’s hopes of retaining their crown stand at risk with Van Dijk’s long term absence for the defender was central to their Premier League success in 2019/20.

Calls were made for the Reds to dip in the January transfer market and sign a replacement for the all-crucial center-back.

Bayern Munich’s David Alaba, Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly, RB Leipzig’s Dayot Upamecano are a few names reportedly in consideration for the English champions.

Alaba is considered by many fans to be the best option with the versatile Austrian supposedly unwilling to extend his contract with Bayern.

A former Liverpool midfielder, however, feels they only need to keep faith in their options as another big-money investment will only create an imbalance in the squad.

Jason McAteer told FreeSuperTips, via Goal: “When Virgil van Dijk got injured everyone started to panic, saying that Liverpool need to bring a top-quality center-half.

“Jurgen remained calm and knew that if they brought in a world-class defender, the like of Alaba, you are going to have to pay a lot of money, certainly in this inflated market.

“When everyone is fit, if you have got four top center-halves – Alaba, [Joe] Gomez, Van Dijk and [Joel] Matip and then Fabinho as cover – when Klopp picks his team, he can only pick two from five, one goes on the bench that’s three, he’s got two that he has to leave out.

“Liverpool don’t want to be paying a lot of money on wages to keep unhappy players that can’t make the squad, it has to be the right balance.”