Liverpool’s best backup plan is the Academy – assistant coach

Liverpool assistant coach Pep Lijnders appears to have dropped a hint about the club’s intentions in the January transfer market.

The Premier League champions are set to be without the first-choice centre-back pairing for the rest of the season with Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez both out with serious knee injuries. This significant piece of misfortune has caused a lot speculation about the Reds signing a central defender in January to help them cope through the second half of the demanding campaign, but Lijnders says their best backup plan is to rely on the Academy to deliver the players they need.

In the absence of Van Dijk and Gomez, 23-year-old Nathaniel Phillips and 19-year-old Rhys Williams have been given a chance to prove their quality to manager Jurgen Klopp, and they’ve both been putting in unexpectedly fine performances. Joel Matip and Fabinho are likely to remain the first-choice pair in the heart of defence, but the two youngsters have indeed proven they can step in and do the job whenever required.

Therefore, even though Liverpool have been linked with Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly, RB Leipzig’s Dayot Upamecano, Schalke’s Ozan Kabak and Ajax’s Perr Schuurs, they don’t seem likely to sign a centre-back next month.