Liverpool Eye Leipzig Center-Back Duo

Not content to only chase one RB Leipzig center-back, Liverpool are now said to be interested in both of their starting defenders. Rumours have been swirling around interest in Dayot Upamecano for a while, because he looks poised to make a summer switch to a new club when his £37.3m release clause is triggered. Now, according to BILD, it appears that the Reds may be looking for a double-grab.

Upamecano and fellow French international Ibrahima Konate are the preferred center-back pairing for the German club, and Liverpool are said to be ‘keeping tabs’ on them both for the summer. Both men are young and talented. It would be interesting from a purely academic standpoint to see what it would look like to transplant a center-back pairing from one team with their own style of play into another team. If nothing else, it would prove to be an interesting experiment.

Curiosities aside, though, Liverpool are staring down the rest of the season without their own preferred defenders, who also happen to be two of them very best in their positions. Gaining more back-up in the summer transfer window will be useful for the future, but does nothing to fix the situation that they currently find themselves in.

If the Reds want the players, they reportedly have competition from Chelsea, who already have a relationship with the German club after they acquired Timo Werner and Kai Havertz last summer.

There is less than two weeks to go in the January transfer window. If Liverpool want immediate defensive cover, they are running out of time to act. While pundits, journalists and fans are united in their belief that the transfer team needs to bring in at least one more center-back before the window closes, the club may not share that view. Perhaps they’ve decided to wait until the summer instead.