Jamie Carragher has said that one player at Liverpool ‘needs help’…and he offered a suggestion as to one possible transfer target who could provide it.
The Reds will be without any natural senior left-backs for their Carabao Cup quarter-final against Southampton on Wednesday, with Andy Robertson suspended and Kostas Tsimikas injured.
The Scot had a day to forget against Fulham at the weekend, enduring a tough 17 minutes before his early red card and subsequently having his performance levels called into question by some pundits.
Speaking on Monday Night Football for Sky Sports (via GOAL), Carragher aired his concerns over the 30-year-old and named one alternative from the Premier League who Liverpool could realistically seek to bring in.
The pundit said: “Robertson is having a tough time and it’s a very unforgiving position. He doesn’t look like he’s running back fully, he’s had a whack then gingerly goes to control the ball before getting a red card. He needs help. Liverpool haven’t got any backup and it’s something they need to address in January.
“[Milos] Kerkez has been a revelation at Bournemouth. The technical director who brought him to Bournemouth [Richard Hughes] is now the sporting director at Liverpool.
“Kerkez looks like a full-back and he’s aggressive. He’s been superb since he came into the Premier League and is one to watch in the future whether he stays or moves on.”
Kerkez has actually been linked with Liverpool in recent weeks, and he declared in an interview with The Guardian that he believes he can ‘make it at the top level of football’, which suggests that he ultimately sees himself at a club competing for major silverware.
The Hungarian’s underlying performance metrics aren’t remarkable – across a series of traits identified by FBref, he doesn’t rank among the top 20% of left-backs in Europe’s five main leagues over the past year in any of them, but the eye test appears to present a more favourable view than the numbers.
Carragher has been captivated by the 21-year-old’s ‘aggressive’ nature on the pitch, and the Bournemouth defender has strong echoes of a younger Robertson in how he charges up and down the flank to provide an attacking outlet in addition to undertaking his core defensive duties.
The pundit has also correctly noted that it was Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes who brought Kerkez to the Premier League last year when he was in the Cherries’ boardroom, so the Anfield recruitment chief might be tempted to seek out the Hungary international for a second time.
Concurrent links with Alphonso Davies suggest that the Reds are firmly in the market for a new left-back, so that may well be one position to watch closely as the January transfer window looms ever larger.
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