Liverpool are a little short on centre-back options – well, shorter than the start of last season.
Since Dejan Lovren left Anfield to join Zenit in July, Reds boss Jurgen Klopp only has Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez by way of established central defenders.
And with Liverpool spending the whole summer chasing Thiago, a midfielder, it doesn’t look like Klopp will be signing a replacement for Lovren.
The German manager has inexperienced options in the form of Sepp van den Berg and Billy Koumetio, both of whom are teenagers.
But Klopp has claimed that he could and would also use midfielder Fabinho in a centre-back role if he needed to.
The Liverpool powerhouse slotted into defence against Bayern Munich in a Champions League game a couple of years ago, with the Brazilian keeping a clean sheet against the likes of Robert Lewandowski.
And Klopp has revealed that he wouldn’t hesitate to play the former Monaco star – a £39 million signing in 2018 – there again.
He told the club’s official website: “Fabinho can play it as well. He did against Bayern in the Champions League once, probably in another game, I’m not 100 per cent sure. It worked pretty well because he’s a smart player.”
Yes, he played well against Bayern that night, but there isn’t enough data to definitively prove that he’s a brilliant centre-back.
He might well be, because he’s the sort of player who you’d believe would do a job in any position, but it could still be considered a gamble if Klopp doesn’t sign a Lovren replacement.
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