Liverpool have distanced themselves from a move for Denis Zakaria following speculation that they were interested in signing the midfielder.
The Switzerland international is out of contract in the summer and reports on Friday suggested the Reds were one of the front-runners to land the 25-year-old, with Borussia Monchengladbach favouring a sale this month as opposed to losing him for free at the end of the season.
Jurgen Klopp ’s side have been linked with a move for Zakaria repeatedly in the past, however, Liverpool have no interest in the midfielder at this current time according to Anfield club insiders.
The Reds have seen the midfield options depleted for most of the season so far, yet the latest links with the Monchengladbach man arise just as Liverpool are close to welcoming back their full contingent.
Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, James Milner and Curtis Jones are all available for the Reds’ trip to Crystal Palace on Sunday, with the latter in particular impressing in recent weeks following his return to the side after injury and testing positive for Covid-19.
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Meanwhile, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain could return after missing the midweek trip to Arsenal with an ankle injury, while Harvey Elliott is set to return next month after the international break having already caught the eye of club bosses after making his comeback to team training earlier this week following a serious ankle injury.
Elsewhere, Klopp has confirmed he’s hopeful that Thiago Alcantara will be fit to return after the international break, having been absent since last month’s victory over Newcastle United after testing positive for Covid-19 and suffering an injury upon his return to training, while teenager Tyler Morton has impressed when turned to this season.
And Liverpool will also welcome Naby Keita back to the AXA Training Centre at some point in the next fortnight following his participation at the Africa Cup of Nations, with the Guinea captain shining for his homeland in the group-stages to help them progress to the round-of-16 as he put in two man-of-the-match displays and scored a sensational goal against Zimbabwe.
Klopp was defensive when asked about whether he needed to sign a new midfielder back in the summer, insisting he was happy with the options at his disposal despite Gini Wijnaldum’s exit to Paris Saint-Germain.
“Gini Wijnaldum played for us an incredible amount of games. Absolutely a great player, a top, top, top player,” the German told reporters back in August. “I watched him now at Paris once or twice in some games and it’s like, 'Ah yeah, that’s Gini!'
“Even when we prepare for an opponent like Chelsea, we look at our games against Chelsea and see Gini running around there. We still have to get used to that. It is not only on the pitch we miss him but we really, really miss him in the dressing room as well.
“The reflex is we lose a midfielder and we don’t bring anyone in, now we count our midfielders. If there is an area on the pitch when we really have all the different skill-sets. Dynamic, creativity, defensive oriented, offensive oriented.
“There is no gap. It is not we have to bring in another one. We have players here with great skills.
“Last weekend doesn’t mean that Harvey [Elliott] is now the saviour of our midfield problem because we don’t have one. If Gini is still here, Harvey probably wouldn’t have played this game. But he played and he played well. Great. And I knew before this game there was a good chance that he would play well but he did.
“And we have others as well. Curtis Jones is 20 years old and played 15-20 games last year. He can make, will make and has to make the next step.
“Naby Keita obviously hasn’t played a full season so far exactly how he expects or we could have expected it but he always has really good games. Big games where we’ve won when he’s started and now he’s started this season twice. Would he have played if Gini is still here? I don’t know obviously but maybe not.
“And then we have Thiago who didn’t start a game yet. We have [Jordan Henderson] who played only one of the games. We have [Alex] Oxlade-Chamberlain with a dynamic that you cannot buy at the moment if you want to buy a midfielder. I probably have forgotten one. Ah, Fabinho of course!
“So that is the situation. There is no need just to buy a midfielder because someone is on the market. I cannot help the supporters who want us to sign a player just to get somebody in.
“We did our business as well and now we should be ready. If you’re really with us and really think about it, you’ll realise there is no real need.
“If the one player who is really the one who could improve all the things we have spoken out, we would go for him, I promise, if we would see him.”
It appears that stance hasn’t changed midway through the season as we head towards the final week of the January transfer window, with Liverpool still not expected to strengthen their squad when the market closes on January 31st.
However, with Milner's contract set to expire in the summer, Keita and Oxlade-Chamberlain's running out in 2023 and Thiago's deal coming to an end in 2024, whether that remains the case at the end of the season remains to be seen.
