Arsenal and Liverpool taking very different transfer approaches to PL rules

While their on-pitch fortunes continue to fluctuate, both Arsenal and Liverpool are facing similar problems in the January transfer window – albeit they are coming towards them from different angles.

With both sides not where they want to be in the Premier League table, supporters have been hoping that an addition this month will serve as a boost for flagging morale.

For Arsenal it is all about creativity.

With Mesut Ozil's long goodbye now finally, mercifully at an end, the need for a player who can operate as a No.10 and also a little deeper behind a front two has been obvious.

Emile Smith Rowe has more than admirably filled that gap in recent weeks, but Mikel Arteta is sure to be reluctant to overplay the youngster at this stage of his career.

Which is why he's signing Martin Odegaard.

The attacking midfielder will join on a loan deal from Real Madrid until the end of the season, and while there is nothing standing in the way of completing that deal, there is a bit of red tape to untangle after it is done.

Arsenal will have to submit a refreshed up to 25-man Premier League squad a week after the January transfer window closes, following on from the list they put in after the closure of the previous transfer window in October.

With clubs allowed no more than 17 non-homegrown players on that list, both Ozil and Sokratis Papastathopoulos weren't included as it became clear that Arteta had no need for them.

Arsenal's October list actually only included 22 players, but that's because most of their best English talent – Smith Rowe, Bukayo Saka, Reiss Nelson, Eddie Nketiah and Joe Willock – are young enough to be included on the separate under-21 list, which can be as long as clubs want it to be.

Despite Ozil and Sokratis being omitted though, the main October list of 22 still included 17 non-homegrown players.

Since then, Bosnia's Sead Kolasinac has left on loan and Australia's Mat Ryan has joined, meaning it stays at 17.

All of which means that to add 22-year-old Norwegian Odegaard to the group, one Arsenal player will have to be taken out.

That looks for all the world as though it is going to be Shkodran Mustafi, but after paying millions to Ozil and Sokratis (okay, mainly Ozil) to not play for them this season before cancelling their contracts this month, the Gunners aren't going to want to do the same for the German centre-back.

They would either like to find a buyer for the 28-year-old or come to an agreement to pay off his contract which expires in the summer. Either way, Odegaard's arrival means Mustafi is unlikely to play for Arsenal again.

The Gunners' approach at being pro-active to try and solve their registration issues while also getting what they need is probably being looked at enviously by fans of Liverpool, whose approach to a similar but different problem has been to simply do nothing.

When Virgil van Dijk sustained his devastating knee injury at Everton on October 17, Liverpool took him out of their first 25-man squad of the season which was submitted three days later.

That list then included 24 players, of which 16 were non-homegrown (the homegrown definition being that you need to have trained with an English or Welsh club for three years prior to turning 21, it isn't based on nationality).

Presumably Liverpool took Van Dijk out for two reasons.

One, that they may have stumbled across a free agent centre-back of any nationality that they could immediately add to the squad for at least a few months if they wanted, and two, the strong possibility that the Dutchman couldn't play again this season.

Now, with Van Dijk seemingly posting pretty impressive looking fitness updates on his social media almost every day, the prospect that he will be able to play again this season, maybe around April time, looks quite real.

But for that to happen he'd have to be added back into the new Premier League squad in a couple of weeks, taking it up to the maximum number of 25 players with 17 non-homegrown.

With Liverpool fans around the world screaming for the club to buy a new centre-back, if they did just that and he was non-homegrown (maybe Mustafi, for argument's sake) and Van Dijk came back, then they too would need to take a player out.

So who are you getting rid of?

Adrian, now third-choice goalkeeper, would be a prime option but Alisson's injury issues make that risky, while Liverpool have been open to selling Xherdan Shaqiri and Divock Origi for a while but the current market isn't a sellers' one for players like them.

An interesting option could be summer arrival Kostas Tsimikas, who has barely featured this season due to Covid and injury issues.

Intriguingly the left-back has been linked with a loan return to Greece in recent days, and while that might be considered in order for him to pick up some fitness and form, knowing Liverpool's luck this season then you could expect an immediate Andy Robertson injury if he departed.

With Liverpool's prudent owners – who have for now ended talks over a new minority investment deal – not likely to be so willing to pay the wages of a player who can't play for them, a la Arsenal with Ozil and Sokratis, it has all created an issue which seems to have irked Jurgen Klopp as he oversees the current drop in form.

Even before all this there is already a compelling case for one of Liverpool's big summer 2021 moves to be for a homegrown player.

The Reds' current list of eight includes recently promoted No.2 goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher, defender Nat Phillips who was on the verge of leaving in October and striker Joe Hardy, whose only 'senior' appearance was in the young side that beat Shrewsbury in the FA Cup last season.

Klopp's last move for a big name homegrown player was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in 2017, and that seems likely to change this year.

He could, of course, move for one in this transfer window given Liverpool's obvious need for a centre-back, and he could easily drop Hardy – who suffered an ankle ligament injury in November – to make room.

Liverpool may even have given up hope on the homegrown Joe Gomez returning this season, meaning he could be taken off as well.

His recovery has been a lot more low-key than Van Dijk's with the first images of his rehab shared last week. Supporters couldn't help but notice the huge scar on his left knee.

But which homegrown centre-back would Liverpool sign? The options are likely to fall into one of two categories, too expensive and not good enough.

So while Liverpool persevere with the likes of the very green Rhys Williams and the limited Phillips at the back, with results suffering as a consequence, their answer to this dilemma appears to be to completely ignore it and hope everything works out, while Arsenal tread a different path.

Supporters of the reigning champions might feel that the Gunners' approach to tackling a problem is the better option.

It remains to be seen if Liverpool are right to try and style this out.

Should Liverpool copy Arsenal's approach and just sign a centre-back? Have your say in the comments below

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