Liverpool are now “pursuing a specialist No 6” – not in Premier League

Liverpool are now said to be “pursuing” a specialist No. 6, with that player being from outside of the Premier League.

It has, of course, been the topic of the summer – again – and so far there have been few credible links to defensive midfielders / No. 6s.

Players such as Porto’s Alan Varela have been somewhat linked, along with Ederson of Atalanta, but beyond that the links have been few and far between.

Now, in a rare update, the highly reliable reporter David Ornstein of the Athletic reports that the club are actively pursuing an unnamed player who is based outside of the Premier League.

That means Varela and Ederson would tick that box, but it would rule out Wolves‘ Joao Gomes who has also been loosely linked.

What has been apparent in these opening friendlies under the new coach, is that Arne Slot‘s style of midfield doesn’t appear to suit or require a No. 6 who simply breaks up play; the player is required to be on the ball more and more effective in the build up play.

What Arne Slot has said

Slot used three different players as the deepest midfielder in the Reds’ three friendlies in the USA; Wataru Endo, Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch.

On the position, Slot told reporters in the US: “Ryan did really well in that position [against United] and we have other options as well.

“The best way to judge it is when we have all the players back and we still haven’t, but a club like Liverpool always keeps its eye open to see what’s available.”

He added, on signings in general: “The bar is really high for new signings because we have so many good players.

“It is not so easy to first find a player to meet those standards and then ask, ‘is he available?’.

“Then we have to find an agreement with them, so it is not always easy to find a player who can help us but Richard is working hard on it and let’s see what comes from this.”

With Liverpool now back on Merseyside, where the full squad will join up for the first time on Tuesday, it seems transfer Business will finally step up a gear now.

So far, the only Business Liverpool have done this summer is to loan out two players!