Why Liverpool’s transfer plan must change after Marc Guehi decision

Paul Gorst assesses Liverpool's January transfer window stance as summer target Marc Geuhi edges toward a move to Manchester City

It's five years ago now since one of the most desperate periods of Jurgen Klopp's time as Liverpool boss. Having already lost Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez to season-ending injuries, an issue for Joel Matip left the champions without any senior centre-backs for a campaign that eventually saw them meekly surrender their Premier League crown.

Six home defeats in a row at what was previously an Anfield stronghold was particularly tough to take at a time when no fans were allowed into Premier League venues over the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Before that nadir, however, Liverpool were desperately scrambling around to do what they could to address a shortage of defenders that had seen midfielders Jordan Henderson and Fabinho regularly played out of position in an effort to stop the bleeding.

It was gallows humour in the extreme when club captain Henderson, a midfielder in the eyes of any football observer, also saw his own season ended in February when he hobbled out of a Merseyside derby defeat at home to Everton having started in defence. That was enough to confirm the entire season as snake-bit.

It may be a campaign best remembered for Alisson Becker's last-gasp winner at West Bromwich Albion that kept alive an unbeaten end-of-season sequence that ultimately secured Champions League qualification, but the defensive injuries crippled the title defence as they were made to settle for a distant third.

Ozan Kabak was signed on loan in the dying embers of the January window and Ben Davies was brought in from Championship side Preston North End for around £1.6m. It was the sort of transfer activity of a club trying to place a sticking plaster on a gaping wound at a time when still so much financial uncertainty swirled around pandemic football.

Davies never kicked a ball in a competitive game and the Reds refused to make Kabak's deal permanent even when he was later offered at half the initial fee set by Schalke. Liverpool ended the campaign with Rhys Williams and Nat Phillips at the back, who rightly soaked up plenty of plaudits for their performances.

Things are not quite as bleak in January of 2026 but there are some similarities for Arne Slot and sporting director Richard Hughes to consider. The club's long-term response to their centre-back crisis was to sign Ibrahima Konate later that year for £35m from RB Leipzig.

Nearly a quarter of a decade later, he remains the last senior centre-half signed at Anfield, with the greatest of respect to promising youngster Giovanni Leoni, who played around 80 minutes in September before succumbing to an ACL injury.

If we are to include Leoni as a senior member, the Reds have signed as many centre-halves for their academy ranks this month alone, in Mor Talla Ndiaye and Ifeanyi Ndukwe, as they have for their first team since the summer of 2021.

Had Liverpool got their wish, then Marc Guehi would have provided high-quality competition for Konate and Van Dijk at the start of September but the dramatic pulling of the plug from Crystal Palace now appears to have steered the England international's career toward Manchester City, who are advancing in their efforts to sign him.

There's a lot to be said for continuity within a squad, particularly at centre-back, where the partnerships that are established are so important to the systemic approach to defending as a unit.

And while a move to City for Guehi is unlikely to have too much of a knock-on effect for the Reds in their efforts to finish inside the top four, it will mean a club who they will consider themselves as rivals to for next term's Premier League title have stolen a march on a defender who was on the cusp of a move to Merseyside just a few short months ago.

Could Liverpool have not challenged City? The champions were content to hand over £320m on attacking reinforcements in Florian Wirtz (£116m), Alexander Isak (£125m) and Hugo Ekitike (£79m) just a few months ago, so pleading poverty or attempting to be thrifty now doesn't really stack up to the stark reality of that summer business.

Gomez is closing in on his 11th year as a Reds player and Van Dijk, still a totem of the team eight years into his time at Anfield, will turn 35 before the start of next season. Konate, meanwhile, is out of contract in the summer and is quietly edging towards the exit door as a free agent as things stand.

Nineteen-year-old Leoni may well be the future but looking ahead to the summer months, it's clear that experienced, quality additions will be needed in spades and it's already feeling as though the workload will be piled on those at the club tasked with recruitment.

Liverpool have always professed that the best January additions are when they are long-term plans that are brought forward as opposed to reactive, panicked deals that saw inferior quality like Kabak and Davies arrive five years ago. So why not expedite those plans now?

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