After our failed advances to sign Virgil van Dijk from Southampton in the summer, it should come as no surprise that we are still in the market for a central defender. Liverpool have struggled to keep clean sheets so far in the campaign and Italian outlet Il Tempo (h/t Mirror) claims that we are in the running for a Dutch defender.

Before we go crazy and state once again that Van Dijk is the man making a move to Liverpool, it is his countryman, Stefan de Vrij who is being linked with a move away from Serie A club Lazio.

We were linked with the 25-year-old last season as well but he decided to stick with the Italian side. Now the report claims that De Vrij is unwilling to sign a contract extension with the club and that he will be a free agent in the summer window.

That means that we would have a free shot at negotiating a contract with him in January so that he can join us for free at the start of next season, similar to what we did with Joel Matip who came to us from Schalke.

The report also claims that Lazio could be open to selling him in January for €25m should they not be able to strike a new contract with the Dutch defender, which would be an amazing deal given the current prices of quality players.

De Vrij is putting the Italian club through the same problems as we are having with Emre Can as both want release clauses in their new contracts. While we are relenting on Can getting his contract, Lazio too are hoping for the same, and this could all turn very messy before the end of the season.

This does seem to be a departure from our Van Dijk pursuit and truth be told, few of us are sick of the constant reports of the Southampton man joining us. De Vrij would be an excellent signing as he is quality and would come at a snip of the price that the Saints are demanding from us.

We do need someone to join us in the January window as we are woefully short of cover in defence. If De Vrij does sign, it would be a coup for Jurgen Klopp and team.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkwhFWcEGZs