Former Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov has backed SSC Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly as being the only defender who can improve Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool.
Liverpool swept to their first Premier League trophy in dominant fashion by winning 32 of their 38 matches, thanks heavily to having the top-flight’s best defensive record after allowing just 33 goals to be scored against them.
Klopp relied most on Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez to serve as his central defensive partnership with the pair starting 38 and 21 games in the role respectively, ahead of now Zenit St. Petersburg ace Dejan Lovren (nine starts) and the perennially injured Joel Matip (eight starts).
Yet Berbatov is not totally convinced of Gomez’s talents, and would urge Klopp and the Liverpool hierarchy to sign Koulibaly if they are in the market for a new centre-half this summer.
“I’m not sure they need to change too much, maybe a centre-back better than Joe Gomez to play with Van Dijk,” three-time Premier League winner Berbatov told Betfair.
“Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli would be an excellent signing, but apart from that the Reds have an excellent team.
“ I see they’ve been linked with Thiago [of Bayern Munich], and I like him, but if he comes, who doesn’t play so he can start? He can play with Fabinho and [Jordan] Henderson and they will be even more powerful, but I’m not certain they need him.”
Koulibaly would not come cheap, with reports in Italy claiming Napoli President Aurelio de Laurentiis will demand no less than €90million (£81m) at a time Liverpool are claimed to have a reduced transfer budget.
Is Koulibaly the only CB who can improve Liverpool?
Yes
No
While Berbatov is not totally convinced by Gomez, the 23-year-old did record a higher number of attempted (1.5) and successful (1.0) tackles than Van Dijk (0.6 successful from 0.8 attempts) per game in the Premier League this season, though both trailed Matip (1.6 from 2.5) and Lovren (1.4 from 1.9), per WhoScored data.
Gomez also ranked top amongst the four for interceptions (1.6), most passes played (86.3) and blocked more passes (0.3) and crosses (0.2) than Van Dijk (0.1 passes, 0.2 crosses).
The England international did commit the most fouls (0.8), register the fewest clearances (2.7) and win the least aerial duels (3.1 of 5.1 attempts), however.