Jamie Carragher and Graeme Souness want to see a playmaker arrive at Anfield in the summer after the 0-0 draw with Manchester City
Liverpool have been urged to sign a natural playmaker to bolster their ranks after their lack of creative edge was exposed in the dull draw with champions Manchester City.
The Reds had won the last four meetings with City in the Premier League at Anfield and knocked Pep Guardiola’s men out of the Champions League last season.
But Jurgen Klopp’s men were unable to maintain that supremacy after mustering just two shots on target during the 90 minutes of the 0-0 draw .
And former defender Jamie Carragher believes the performance highlights Liverpool’s lack of options in the middle of the park.
“If Liverpool are in a really good position in January, I think they’ve got to be looking to address that [midfield area],” he told Sky Sports .
“It’s not even necessarily having someone who comes in and plays every single game. They just haven’t even got anyone like that in the squad. Adam Lallana is too injury prone.
“Even if Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain comes back, [Naby] Keita goes in or Fabinho goes in they are all the same. Liverpool don’t play with a No 10, but there’s no David Silva or Bernardo Silva or a player like that in the squad.
“I’m not talking about that player playing every week. It’s just the fact of having someone like that in the squad to turn to when you feel you need that player.”
Having acquired Naby Keita, Fabinho and Xherdan Shaqiri during the summer, a move for Lyon’s Nabil Fekir fell through after the Frenchman failed a medical.
But having been unable to properly address that position, Graeme Souness feels Klopp still has unfinished business in the transfer market.
“In the summer Liverpool signed Fabinho, signed Keita and also tried to sign [Nabil] Fekir from Lyon,” the Scot explained. “I think that tells you how Jurgen sees their midfield.
“I look at Liverpool’s midfield and I bet they are three great lads, who work their socks off but they just haven’t got that little bit of quality in games like this to look one way and deliver a pass the other way.
“I think the very fact that Jurgen signed two and tried to get three shows you they are a bit short there.
“I think that showed at times today when they were dominant and had a lot of the ball.
“The danger is, when you try to go for more quality, you might not get someone who puts the same shift in.
“That’s the balancing act. Jurgen likes to call it ‘rock and roll football’ with high tempo and high intensity.
“Would you get that from someone who’s got a bit more class?”