Liverpool are aggressively seeking new centre-back options for the 2025/26 season as they face growing depth concerns, spearheaded by injury issues and failed transfer moves. The club’s serious interest in Borussia Dortmund’s Nico Schlotterbeck is intensifying, while their pursuit of Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi has stalled amid soaring competition and contract complexities. This blog analyzes Liverpool’s strategic need, evaluates player profiles, and forecasts broader market implications for their defensive rebuild, with deep insights into Schlotterbeck’s suitability and Guehi’s uncertain transfer status. Liverpool’s Centre-Back Crisis Liverpool’s centre-back situation has reached a critical juncture ahead of the January 2026 transfer window. Veteran leader Virgil van Dijk, now 34, requires careful management to stay fit, while Ibrahima Konate and Joe Gomez—their primary rotation options—have long-standing injury histories that make them unreliable for a full campaign. Summer signing ...
FIFA has warned players that if nothing is done to alleviate the mounting strain on their workload, they will "take matters into their own hands," with players' union FIFPro indicating that strike action is not out of the question. In the midst of an increasingly congested fixture calendar, FIFPro Europe president David Terrier declared "an emergency" due to players' mounting mental and physical exhaustion. Terrier advocated for regulations to limit the number of games after the FIFPro player workload and recovery season review revealed some concerning figures. As part of the investigation, a player poll revealed that more than half of respondents had been forced to play while already injured, and 82% of managers had fielded a player they knew needed to rest. "We are dealing with one of our sport's most pressing issues, which has arisen as a result of a government failure," Terrier stated at the FIFPro event in London. "It has caused serio...