Jamie Carragher has continued his spat with Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp over whether the club should sign a new centre-back or not.
The row has erupted after the serious ACL injury suffered by Virgil van Dijk in the Merseyside derby on Saturday that is likely to keep him out of action for at least six months.
Carragher suggested on Monday night that Liverpool should dive into the transfer market in January to sign a new central defender, picking out RB Leipzig’s Dayot Upamecano as the ideal choice.
‘There’s a young guy that everyone’s talking about – there’s one – that’s Upamecano at Leipzig,’ Carragher told Sky Sports.
‘There’s talk of him. He’s not the profile of Van Dijk he’s 6’1 or 6’2 so he’s maybe not that aerial challenger but if that’s the one Liverpool want next summer then bring it forward, pay extra money and do it on January 1st
‘That means Liverpool would only have to get through the next 11 league games without Virgil van Dijk.’
‘We went into the season with three centre-halves with Fabinho as cover, plus young kids as cover. That’s usually quite a good number,’ said the German.
‘As a football club it’s difficult to have four world-class centre-halves. On the one side, immediately, it’s pretty expensive, on the other side one of them doesn’t play for a long, long time and that’s pretty difficult because it’s not a position you rotate too much. So it’s a tricky one.
‘If anybody wants to tell us now we made a mistake in the transfer window… I think Jamie Carragher or whatever mentioned already something like this.
‘There are a few reasons why they don’t do this job [being a manager] but they do the other job [being a pundit].’
Responding to Klopp’s comments, Carragher tweeted: ‘Not once this season have I said it was a mistake for Klopp not to buy a CB for the exact reason he states.’
There does seems to have been a misunderstanding between the two Liverpool icons, with Klopp taking umbrage to perceived criticism of his summer transfer dealings.
Carragher was not saying Liverpool should have brought in a central defender before the last transfer deadline, but is recommending making a signing in January.
