With Naby Keita set to resume Liverpool full team training this week, the Reds’ midfield injury crisis that engulfed their engine room during the campaign so far is essentially over.
Juventus loanee Arthur Melo is currently the only long-term absentee in Liverpool’s midfield, with Curtis Jones and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain making their own comebacks following lengthy lay-offs last week. Once Thiago Alcantara overcomes an ear infection and Keita is declared match fit, Jurgen Klopp will have all nine permanently contracted midfielders available for selection.
However, despite such quantity, questions over the quality of the Reds’ options remain, with all of their full quota at least one of ageing, out of contract, inexperienced or have been prone to injury.
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From Liverpool’s nine midfield options, Keita, Oxlade-Chamberlain and James Milner are all out of contract next summer. Meanwhile, Jordan Henderson and Thiago Alcantara join the Reds vice-captain in comfortably being the wrong side of 30.
Milner is the only one of that quintet who you wouldn’t class as injury-prone, yet, set to turn 37 in January, is hardly a player you can turn to to play 90 minutes game after game. However, Fabinho, Jones and Arthur have also all been prone to injury.
That leaves just Harvey Elliott and Fabio Carvalho. Aged 19 and 20, the former Fulham youngsters boast 21 and 14 Premier League appearances each respectively.
With Keita and Arthur, who currently looks unlikely to join Liverpool permanently when his loan move expires, the only Reds midfielders at ‘peak age’, it is perhaps no wonder that the club are planning for a midfield overhaul in 2023, akin to the upheaval their attack has undergone over the past year.
Now Jude Bellingham is the clear first-choice target for any Liverpool fan, with Klopp known to be a firm admirer of the England international. But while the Reds are interested in the 19-year-old, who Borussia Dortmund were always insistent wouldn’t be sold until 2023, they aren’t the only side monitoring his situation.
Given their disappointing start, which could leave them at risk of missing out on Champions League football next season, and the fact that financially they couldn’t compete with the riches on offer at the likes of Man City, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool’s hopes of signing Bellingham remain very much up in the air.
Yet regardless of the outcome of any potential pursuit of the midfielder, it is clear that the Reds’ engine room requires more than one new addition with four of Klopp’s current 10 options currently not contracted to the club beyond the summer.
As a result, the club’s recruitment team will have drawn up a list of potential targets, which no doubt features Bellingham’s name near the very top, as they look to revamp Liverpool’s options.
Away from the Borussia Dortmund star, the Reds missed out on Aurelien Tchouameni to Real Madrid last summer, while the likes of Inter Milan’s Nicola Barella, PSV Eindhoven’s Ibrahim Sangare and Brighton & Hove Albion’s Moises Caicedo have all been touted as possible targets at one point or another. However, one of the Seagulls midfielder’s team-mates at the Amex Stadium, could also be worth monitoring.
Alexis Mac Allister has been a standout performer for Brighton during the opening months of the season and is currently enjoying the form of his career so far. Still only 23, the midfielder has returned four goals from 11 appearances to help the Seagulls sit ninth in the table.
A full Argentina international, he has been an ever-present for Brighton under both Graham Potter and Roberto De Zerbi, with his 87th minute withdrawal in the Seagulls’ loss to Man City on Saturday the only reason he hasn’t played every minute of every game so far. Meanwhile, while he has predominantly played in a deeper midfield role this season, he is extremely versatile and has experience playing as a number six, number eight, number 10, on either flank and upfront for Brighton.
Nearing three years of Premier League experience, he has proven himself to be an all-round option this year, with his stats some of the best in the division in his position. Rodri, Ruben Neves, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Youri Tielemans and Declan Rice the only midfielders capable of bettering his total of 643 passes in the Premier League this season, while his total of 810 touches is the fifth-best of a midfielder in the English top-flight this season.
Only 10 midfielders have recorded more than his 10 shots on goal, while he is the joint-second highest goalscoring midfielder this season, having netted three penalties and a direct free-kick. At the other end of the pitch, Joao Palhinha, Tyler Adams and Neco Williams are the only players to better his total of 36 tackles.
And he could have been available on a free transfer next summer, or a cut-price deal in January at least, had Brighton not managed to tie the Argentina international down to an extended contract until June 2025, with the option of an additional year, on Monday.
While that might make the 23-year-old unattainable for now, if he keeps up such form it won’t be long before some of the elite clubs come sniffing and try to lure him away. And with Mac Allister set to feature for Argentina at next month’s World Cup, the stage is set for him to set that ball rolling.
There is admittedly no suggestion that Liverpool possess any interest in his services, at this current time. But considering he’s young enough to improve, Premier League proven, rarely-injured and versatile, throw in his all-round displays this season and he’s certainly ticking their boxes.
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