When it comes to identifying potential positions that Liverpool needs to strengthen this summer, it is difficult to pinpoint an obvious place where there is an immediate need. You can always get better — but a year on from making wholesale midfield alterations, the state of the squad is completely changed.
You can always have one more option in attack and midfield, but perhaps at center-back is where Liverpool will be looking first. In that area is where there is currently the least depth.
The emergence of Jarell Quansah, who is now a regular part of the senior squad, means that signing a very young defender might not be quite as important as it seemed to be a year ago, however. Liverpool will not go for an aging option, of course, but the Reds might be able to go for someone slightly more experienced because of how well the academy graduate has performed.
With Richard Hughes confirmed as the Liverpool sporting director, links with Bournemouth players should perhaps be deemed inevitable. Indeed, earlier this week, Cherries boss Andoni Iraola was asked about that very possibility.
“I don’t know what they will do,” Iraola told the Bournemouth Daily Echo. “I think as long as they [Liverpool] meet the requirements the club sets and the offer is good for everyone, this is football.
“I don’t know what is going to happen in the market. It is too early to talk about this. The summer is still far away. We have a lot of things to play for. But whenever the market is open, there are always chances for these things to happen, yes.”
Perhaps the most obvious player for Liverpool to target from Bournemouth is Lloyd Kelly. Considering Joël Matip is out of contract in the summer, signing a center-back seems an obvious place to start when it comes to the transfer market — and Kelly will be a free agent as things stand.
Spurs saw a bid worth around $25m (£20m/€23m) rejected last summer for the former England U21 international, the Bournemouth Daily Echo reported at the time, and Bournemouth still wants to keep the player, who has since made 16 top-flight appearances. But bigger clubs are likely to come in for him, especially given that he will not carry any transfer fee.
Twice before, Liverpool has taken a look at Kelly. In 2019, he was considered as an option when he left Bristol City but Bournemouth was the chosen destination of the then-21-year-old. A year later, he was on the shortlist when Liverpool signed Kostas Tsimikas as a back-up to Andy Robertson.
