Sources: Liverpool three-man January signing list revealed
Liverpool have shortlisted three potential signings ahead of the start of the January transfer window, sources have told Football Insider.
Wolfsburg defender Maxence Lacroix is a top target for the Merseyside club, while Sporting Lisbon centre-back Goncalo Inacio and Sao Paulo defender Lucas Beraldo are also being monitored.
Football Insider revealed on Friday (8 December) that Liverpool will prioritise signing a new centre-back in January after Joel Matip’s knee injury.
The Merseyside club released an official update on their club website on Wednesday revealing that Matip has suffered an injury to his anterior cruciate ligament.
With the 32-year-old facing months on the sidelines, Klopp is eager to bolster his defensive reinforcements with a new defender in January.
Lacroix, 23, is understood to be a long-term target for Liverpool with Klopp a big admirer of the French defender.their
He has already made 113 total appearances for Wolfsburg despite his age and has started in every Bundesliga match in the 2023/24 campaign when available.
Inacio is another defender being watched by Liverpool’s recruitment team with the 22-year-old quickly becoming a key player for Sporting and the Portugal national team.
He has made 19 appearances across all competitions for Sporting this season, including all 12 league fixtures.
Beraldo is the third name on the list and the youngest option for Liverpool at just 20 years old.
He broke through into Sao Paulo’s first team in 2022 and has become a mainstay in the first team with 24 appearances in the 2023 season.
It is understood that Sao Paulo are open to offers for the young defender this January.
In other news, Liverpool set to offer new Joel Matip deal.
Pep Guardiola just accidentally summed up the big difference between Liverpool and Man City
Liverpool and Man City have to operate differently in the transfer market. Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp summed it up nicely in their press conferences today.
It was not the best of weeks for Manchester City and Pep Guardiola. Never before has one of Guardiola’s sides failed to win five league matches in a row but if they don’t win against Luton on Sunday, that first will come true.
So could there be changes in his side? New signings Matheus Nunes and Mateo Kovačić were picked to come on as substitutes midweek but struggled against Aston Villa.
Meanwhile, $57m (£45m/€52m) man Kalvin Phillips was completely overlooked.
“I don’t know what will happen to Kalvin Phillips,” Guardiola said during his press conference today ahead of facing Luton.
“He has good character; I’m so sorry I have not picked him. I visualize my team and select a team and I struggle to see him.”
In that sense, then, it is hard to feel for the position that the Manchester City boss finds himself in.
While he and his players might be in a mini-rut, Phillips was a player brought in for a big fee who has been completely wasted.
Compare that to Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool. While the Reds have a lot more resources than most, there is also a lot more scrutiny placed on the deals that are done. If a $57m signing was left to rot and not given a chance, you suspect that would be bigger news.
Perhaps the closest thing to that at Anfield was Naby Keïta, but that was only through injuries. When he was fit, he was often selected. Klopp remained patient for a lot longer than many would have been.
Instead, every penny is scrutinized considerably more at Liverpool, where the margin for error is substantially smaller.
Just today, for example, Klopp bemoaned the suggestion that a center-back might be required after Joël Matip’s ACL injury.
“I really don’t understand it,” he said during his pre-Crystal Palace press conference. “Just bringing in a player, finding the money for it — as if we have endless money — we always talk about it.”
It is one thing, of course, to spend money for the sake of it, and quite another to replace a player who is injured and out of contract at the end of the season anyway.
Liverpool should certainly be looking to find another option with Matip set to be missing for so long.
But Guardiola’s purchase of Phillips looks increasingly like it fits into the former category: a signing for the sake of a signing.
A year and a half on from Phillips leaving Leeds United, he, more than anyone, sums up the difference in resources between Liverpool and its Premier League title rival.
The respective press conferences of Guardiola and Klopp today summed it up nicely.
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