German insider’s transfer update offers potential silver lining for LFC after Guehi hammer blow
While Liverpool now appear to have missed out on one prominent centre-back transfer target, they have been handed fresh encouragement over another.
On Friday morning, Fabrizio Romano reported that Manchester City had been getting ‘closer’ to agreeing a deal to sign Marc Guehi, for whom the Reds had a deadline-day transaction vetoed by the Selhurst Park club at the end of last summer. He later confirmed that Crystal Palace have accepted a £20m offer from Pep Guardiola’s side.
Now that the England international seems bound for the Etihad Stadium, the Anfield hierarchy could plausibly turn their attention to a move for Nico Schlotterbeck, who’s been cited by several reliable transfer insiders as a defender of firm interest in L4.
Bayern cool transfer interest in Schlotterbeck
Writing for CF Bayern Insider on Friday, German journalist Christian Falk outlined that Bayern Munich are set to drop their pursuit of the Borussia Dortmund centre-back, which could potentially open the door for Liverpool to pounce.
He wrote: ‘It is TRUE: Bayern’s interest in Nico Schlotterbeck has cooled. He’s too expensive at the moment if Dayot Upamecano ends up signing his new contract.
‘Schlotterbeck would like this move – his family contains quite a few Bayern supporters – but no, Bayern won’t go for him at the moment. So we have to keep an eye on England and the Premier League and wait and see what the clubs there are planning on doing.
‘The Germany international said he wants to win titles and silverware, but I don’t think it’s possible with Borussia Dortmund at the moment. If he wants to win titles – he probably needs a transfer! But Bayern, I’m afraid, aren’t an option at this point in time.’
Liverpool must seize their opportunity with Schlotterbeck
With Man City having won the race to sign Guehi, there’s nothing that can happen which’ll deflect from it being anything other than a bitter disappointment for the Reds, especially having come so close to sealing the deal for him four-and-a-half months ago.
However, bringing in Schlotterbeck would go some way towards atoning for it, and with Bayern seemingly out of contention to snap up the 26-year-old, Richard Hughes mustn’t pass up this opportunity to make his move.
At 26 and with just under 200 Bundesliga and Champions League appearances to his name, the Germany international hits that sweet spot of boasting ample high-level experience while also having a good decade or so left in his playing career, barring any major setbacks.
As illustrated by figures from FBref in comparison to other centre-backs in Europe’s five major leagues over the past year, the Dortmund colossus carries an attacking threat while also being effective with his use of the ball.
| Per 90 minutes | Percentile among positional peers | |
| Progressive passes | 7.37 | 99th (top 1%) |
| Assists | 0.1 | 97th |
| Shot-creating actions | 1.6 | 95th |
| Successful take-ons | 0.54 | 94th |
| Shots | 0.88 | 92nd |
| Progressive carries | 1.09 | 85th |
Liverpool are currently operating with only three senior centre-backs, one of whom (Ibrahima Konate) is into the final six months of his contract and is by no means guaranteed to stay, so the need to reinforce that part of the squad is glaring.
The best response to the hammer blow of missing out on Guehi would be to seize the opportunity to snap up Schlotterbeck before Hughes is left with even bigger regrets after today’s bombshell news from Romano.
You can watch Slot’s full post-Barnsley press conference below, via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:
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