Liverpool told position that’s ‘screaming out’ for January transfer

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Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has been told that his midfield is “screaming out” for improvements in the January window as four players have been highlighted as problems going forward. The Reds suffered a 3-2 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday, as their German coach persevered with a new formation that left just Jordan Henderson and Thiago in midfield.

Former Liverpool midfielder Graeme Souness believes that the Merseyside club have made a “mistake” in not adding more midfielders this summer and will have to rectify that issue in the future due to issues with four players. “Where they’ve made a mistake, I said it early season, I think the midfield is screaming out for strengthening,” Souness told talkSPORT.

“You’ve got Thiago, at 31, Henderson 32, [James] Milner 37, Fabinho 28 – which is the perfect age for where he plays – young players coming through, [Naby] Keita for me isn’t good, that’s an obvious area that they need to strengthen and that comes down to the manager.

“What he’s got to do, I think he’s got to be adding to the midfield with the age group of the midfield, I think it’s screaming out for legs, he’s got young players there but it’s a big ask to come in to play a hard nine months dealing with the ups and downs of disappointments. As a Liverpool supporter, I’m looking at the squad at the start of the season, I’m seeing a midfield that’s in decline.”

After Klopp admitted he was wrong late in the summer window not to bring in another midfielder after injuries to Henderson, Thiago, Keita, Curtis Jones, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Fabio Carvalho, the club moved to bring in Arthur Melo on loan from Juventus on transfer deadline day to boost their numbers in midfield.

However, the Brazilian himself has picked up an injury and will be out for several months after undergoing surgery. Klopp opted to stick with the same midfield duo of Thiago and Henderson that started the 2-0 win over Rangers in the Champions League.

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However their defensive frailties were on show inside the first minute against Arsenal as Gunners captain Martin Odegaard was able to find space between the lines and thread a ball through to Gabriel Martinelli to score after just 58 seconds.

In the final 20 minutes of the game, Henderson was moved to the right wing as Fabinho was substituted on for Mohamed Salah, as Klopp explained the need to be strong defensively on that flank.

“I thought we had to defend again on a high level and we tried to put Hendo [Henderson] on that side,” Klopp said. “Mo had an unbelievable workload and put in a real shift and that sometimes is intense, so that is why we changed it. We still wanted to win, even though we took a striker off.”

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