5 months ago
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Stuttgart captain Waldemar Anton is being linked with Liverpool as a potential replacement for departed veteran centre half Joël Matip.
The emergence of Jarell Quansah and resurgence of Joe Gomez last season along with starting french centre half Ibrahima Konate and Dutch captain Virgil van Dijk would seem to set Liverpool up well in the core of defence heading into the 2024-25 season.
For the rumour mongers, though, the departure of out-of-contract veteran Joël Matip means an obvious need for a new signing at the position regardless any homegrown depth, and the latest name to add to the list of potential targets is Stuttgart’s Waldemar Anton.
On paper, the 27-year-old Anton makes sense as a Matip replacement: a solid defender in his prime years with a rumoured £20M release clause, Anton is the man who took over as captain at Stuttgart following Liverpool’s signing of Wataru Endo lart summer.
The problem, though, comes from trying to figure out quite where a one-for-one Matip replacement who brings competition for Quansah and Gomez but isn’t a clear, starting-calibre upgrade for Arne Slot’s Reds, quite fits into the current Liverpool side.
There are ways one might make sense of it—primarily by engineering Trent Alexander-Arnold permanently into midfield and pencilling Joe Gomez in as primarily a fullback option—but veteran centre half depth option just doesn’t feel like an obvious need.
