Arne Slot has refused to commit to saying Liverpool will sign a defender in January, but admitted that the current situation is “tough” and “not very helpful.”
With Giovanni Leoni and Joe Gomez sidelined, the former until the end of the season, Liverpool have just two senior centre-halves available in Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate.
While Gomez’s muscle injury sustained against Brighton isn’t deemed serious, there remains a need for reinforcements in defence.
Slot was asked if Gomez’s injury could impact Liverpool’s January transfer window plans.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, December 13, 2025: Liverpool's Joe Gomez (middle) speaks to assistant coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst (L) and first assistant coach Sipke Hulshoff to (R) after been substituted off during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Brighton & Hove Albion FC at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
“First of all for himself but the injury of Giovanni Leoni is, of course, it has quite a lot of impact,” the head coach replied to press including the Liverpool Echo.
“If you have four centre-backs for the season, two right and two left-backs with Wata (Endo) and Ryan (Gravenberch) who can help you out, but then you have an ACL injury, that is not very helpful.
“It is tough and unfortunately Joe is now out of the squad again tomorrow. In a season, these moments for most teams happen.
“Some teams have so many [options] but most other teams do not. This is our way of working at Liverpool.”
Marc Guehi has been linked with Liverpool (John Walton/PA)
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Marc Guehi has been the most heavily linked centre-back candidate, but having almost bought him in the summer, Liverpool could now be facing competition from the likes of Man City and Bayern Munich, with his contract expiring at the end of the season.
On deadline day, Liverpool agreed a £35 million fee for the Crystal Palace captain, but the deal fell through as manager Oliver Glasner didn’t want to let him go.
Despite the Reds having settled on the fee in August, Slot has now said: “The outside world wants to believe we have unlimited money but that is not true.
“You insiders know – and you are the only ones because the outside world only talks about our spending – what we have brought in (money-wise) to spend.
“That is the way we work over here. You then have to accept that in certain games during a season you are short of a right full-back.
“But we are still able to win. I fully believe in that way of working, by the way.”
While Liverpool spent £446m over the summer in the last transfer window, their net spend was considerably lower at about £228m – that was £18m less than Arsenal‘s figure.
Aside from Guehi, there have been few credible links to defenders of late, with whispers from Germany that Bayern’s Dayot Upamecano is available being the most high-profile rumour.