If Liverpool’s midfield is not already in greater need of investment than it ever has been before, it soon will be. The Reds are the only club in the Premier League who haven’t had a single minute from midfielders aged between 22 and 28 this season.
If that peak age vacuum wasn’t bad enough, three of the current options are out of contract at the end of this season, while Arthur Melo’s injury makes it all-but-certain his option to buy will not be invoked at the conclusion of his loan spell either.
As for the soon-to-be-Bosman players, if James Milner moves on then the veteran will not be overly missed in the sense he rarely starts back-to-back games anymore. But what of Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain? They are Liverpool’s closest to prime age midfielders yet have played just 15 Premier League minutes between them this season (with Keita yet to feature at all).
