According to Calciomercato, the word from Italy is that Jürgen Klopp is keen on signing Matthias Ginter from Borussia Monchengladbach – a player he previously bought while in charge at Borussia Dortmund.
Ginter – a World Cup winner with Germany – is a player the boss knows well, and he saw fit to spend £9 million to sign him from Freiburg for Dortmund back in 2014.
It seems Klopp has kept tabs on Ginter’s development, and has eyed him up as a potential replacement for Joël Matip.
To be fair, Matip has performed admirably of late, particularly in the absence of first-choice centre-back, Joe Gomez, and Dejan Lovren. But, it seems that Klopp remains unconvinced by the former Schalke defender – or more likely his ability to stay fit for lengthy periods.
Apart from the ever-present Van Dijk, our centre-back options seem somewhat brittle: Lovren hasn’t started more than nine games in a row in his entire Liverpool career!
Ginter represents more than a further defensive option for us; he also has the ability to play as a central defensive midfielder. Klopp is all about flexibility and versatility, so the twenty-five-year-old German could prove to be a clever bit of business come the summer.
That said, we’re not sure if he’s a massive step-up in quality and he’d have his work cut out to displace Joe Gomez as Van Dijk’s partner in the heart of our defence.