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Full-Back Problems And More: Key Areas Where Liverpool Needs An Upgrade

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By Patrick Rees

Jürgen Klopp’s men managed to outrun Wigan Athletic down with ease yesterday. The Merseysiders thrashed the fellow English side by two goals to nil and it is safe to say that Klopp is doing nothing wrong in his mission to take Liverpool to the paramount. Danny Ings opened the scoring for the reds and the youngster Woodburn sealed the game.

With that being said, Jürgen Klopp will now be looking to assess his squad in order to make changes, obviously some great changes. So far, Klopp has completed three transfers, namely, Sadio Mane from Southampton for a fee of £36m, Loris Karius from Mainz for £4.7m and Joel Matip from Schalke for free and it is now understood that the German manager will be looking to add some more faces in order to compete for the title.

Well, to be perfectly honest, we do feel that the Merseysiders needs to add some fresh faces if they really want to compete with the other big teams in the league. Talking in terms of departures; Liverpool have released their veteran defender Kolo Toure and now it is expected that their longest serving player Martin Skrtel is also on the verge to quit Anfield. Besides those, Liverpool have allowed Jordan Rossiter, Jerome Sinclair, Joao Teixeira, Jordan Ibe and Sergio Canos to leave the club.

Now, what do Liverpool need?

With the departure of Martin Skrtel almost certain, Klopp will have to search the market to get a proper centre-back to fill the void of Toure and Skrtel. Of course, he has bought Matip, but besides him, Lovren and Sakho, Liverpool do not have a great option to go for and if either one of them gets affected by injury, Liverpool will be short in defence. With that being explained, it is now clear that Klopp will now have to search a perfect centre-half to complement those three names.

Besides a central defender, a left back is a desperate need for the club. With Alberto Moreno failing to do anything concrete, Klopp will have to find a long term replacement for the Spanish wingback and if the reports are to be believed, the German is currently chasing Leicester City’s Ben Chilwell and Koln’s Jonas Hector.

Furthermore, it is recently reported that Jurgen Klopp has urged Mario Balotelli to find another club if he wants to stay in the sport.

Klopp said:

“I have spoken to him about this,” said Klopp. “He’s not at the stage of his career where he should be battling with four or five other players for one or two positions… so it’s clear we need a solution.

“There will be a club around who would be happy to have the new Mario Balotelli. I have spoken clearly to the player about that.”

Besides Balotelli, it is understood that Liverpool’s Belgian striker Christian Benteke’s future as a Red is also in questions. The 25-year-old, who joined the reds last summer was supposed to fill the void of Luis Suarez, but the Belgium international failed badly to replicate his previous form. Although, reports from the Guardian have stated that Liverpool will only sell the striker if the amount they paid to sign him is recouped and if not, Benteke will have to fight for his place, but we do believe that Benteke have no future at Anfield and if that is the case, Liverpool will have to play with Sturridge, Origi and Ings and neither of them, at this moment, are capable of scoring 20-goals in a single season.

They need a high profile striker, who could guide the side to the extreme, someone like Gonzalo Higuain.