Virgil van Dijk’s recent injury has exposed a weakness at Liverpool as a centre-back. The club should repeat Napoli’s recent transfer for an ideal player for Jürgen Klopp.

Liverpool may be well stocked with centre-backs at the moment, but as Virgil van Dijk’s injury recently made clear, the club could still have a problem when it comes to depth, as Jürgen Klopp naturally has plenty of right-wing centre-backs. full-backs, but naturally no one capable of playing on the left.

Ibrahima Konaté was recently brought into that role, but he has fallen short of expectations and looks much more comfortable on the right, meaning Klopp has moved Joe Gomez into the left side role for now until Van Dijk does not recover.
However, Liverpool cannot afford to find temporary long-term solutions. Van Dijk isn’t getting any younger and sooner or later Klopp will have to consider having at least a replacement option for the Dutchman and possibly a future heir as well.

Of course, this centre-back doesn’t need to be an expensive target, given FSG’s tight budget and Liverpool’s main focus on strengthening the midfield this summer, this should be a relatively cheap option. However, as Napoli showed last summer, cheap doesn’t necessarily mean low quality.
In the summer of 2022, Napoli signed Kim Min Jae from Fenerbahçe for $19.5m (£16m/€18m), a move that has since proven ingenious. Kim Min Jae, who replaces Kalidou Koulibaly, has integrated very well into the club and is already establishing himself as one of the best promising defenders in the game. According to Corriere dello Sport, he is even on the radar of clubs like Manchester United and Liverpool for a suggested sum of between $53m (£45m/€50m) and $83m ( £70m/€80m). ). an exaggerated figure for Liverpool.

Instead of betting on Kim Min Jae, however, Liverpool should be smarter and instead turn to the club where Napoli picked up the South Korea international and go after their partner, who are still eyeing Fenerbahçe.

Back home, Attila Szalai was dubbed the ‘Hungarian Van Dijk’ not only for his superior physique, speed and interpretation of the game, but also for his skill with the ball. Szalai joined Fenerbahçe in 2021 and was a revelation for the club ever since. Over the past two years, he has made 98 appearances and scored an impressive nine goals during that time. Strong and commanding in the air, he resembles Kim Min Jae in many ways. In terms of physique and speed, he’s certainly a player fit for the Premier League, and he’s shown that on the international stage for the Hungary national team, who have achieved impressive results against the likes of France, Germany and England in the past few years. years with Szalai at the center of the national team’s defence.