Jamie Carragher has admitted that Liverpool need to sign a "quality" midfielder after they were beaten by Manchester United on Monday night.
The Reds were without Thiago and Naby Keita for their trip to Old Trafford, while Fabinho was named as a substitute after recovering from an injury. This meant Jurgen Klopp had to name 37-year-old James Milner in his starting XI alongside Jordan Henderson and Harvey Elliott.
United dominated the midfield battle with Christian Eriksen and Bruno Fernandes enjoying themselves as Erik ten Hag's side out-fought and out-battled Liverpool. Carragher has highlighted the Reds' midfield as the position that needs improving, with just over a week to go until the end of the window.
He told Sky Sports: "Liverpool need a midfield player, not in terms of the number of the squad or to beef it up, they need someone to go and play and Liverpool feel that is not available right now. I would stick with what Liverpool do where they don’t panic, don’t do things because they’ve got to go get someone.
"Jurgen Klopp isn’t daft, Thiago, Fabinho, Henderson, they’ve got a good midfield but they’re all over 30 and that’s not ideal for any team. Especially when you want to play as intense as Liverpool do.
"They’ve got numbers in there but in terms of quality, Liverpool need a midfield player. If it was available Liverpool would buy him but they’ve obviously got something lined up they feel then. There’s no doubt Liverpool need more in midfield, midfield is the one glaring part of the team that stands out that can’t go against Manchester City when you see the quality in there."
Do Liverpool need to sign a midfielder this month? Let us know in the comments below!
Liverpool have been heavily linked with moves for plenty of midfielders this summer, including Kalvin Phillips, Yves Bissouma and Matheus Nunes but all three have decided to join other Premier League clubs. Youri Tielemans has also been tipped to make the switch to Merseyside with just a year left on his contract.
Jude Bellingham is reportedly the Reds' priority transfer target, but Borussia Dortmund are not open to selling the 19-year-old this month. When quizzed about Liverpool's potential pursuit of signing a midfielder, Klopp said on Friday: "If the right player is not available then we tend to say 'ok we deal with what we have before we sign a player who is not 100 per cent the right player'. Right.
"Now we have more injuries than we would have imagined, and now would be cool to have a new midfielder in, of course now. And then there would be another fact: we are not in charge of what we spend, we are not. That’s the situation, we get things told and then we deal with it. It was always the same, never different."
