The ECHO reported last week that Liverpool was not looking to bring in a number six in the next transfer window, with links to Fluminense midfielder André Trindade played down. The 22-year-old Brazilian is said not to be a likely target in around six weeks’ time, despite failed efforts to bring in Moisés Caicedo and Roméo Lavia in the summer.
That stance can certainly be questioned. André is talented and would be available for a reasonably cheap fee in the current climate; around $37m (£30m/€34m). He would offer a better quality option at the base of the Liverpool midfield than Wataru Endō and would be a good replacement for Thiago Alcântara six months ahead of his contract expiring. In many ways, then, signing André would be a deal that adds up. But if Liverpool does not intend to make a move, it will instead be hoping that Alexis Mac Allister can play the role sufficiently well and that Endō, already 30, can continue to improve. In the case of the captain of Japan, though, it would appear unlikely that he has a much higher ceiling than what he has shown to date.
And that means effectively putting all of its eggs in the Mac Allister basket would be a gamble. Already, the Argentine has been suspended for a game for picking up five bookings in 11 Premier League appearances. That suggests that he is not entirely comfortable in the position, particularly away from home, where four of those yellow cards were collected.
As Argentina was beaten 2-0 by Uruguay a couple of days ago — a game in which Darwin Núñez scored the clinching goal on the counter-attack late on — Mac Allister was booked for a sliding challenge in the first half and hooked at half-time. Playing a similar deep role to what he does at Anfield, the 24-year-old picked up a rating of just four out of 10 from Argentine site TyC Sports. Sign up for o
It is, in many ways, the biggest talking point that will be taken into the January transfer window, which opens in just 44 days’ time: does Liverpool need to sign another midfielder? In part because Jarell Quansah has done well when required and Virgil van Dijk appears to be back to something like his peak, that would appear to be the most logical transfer question that the Reds will soon face, ahead of any defensive worries.
