Reds are stuck in the middle... it’s time for Mount and Mac Allister to come to the rescue

I WON’T say ‘I told you so’, but Liverpool have finally caught up with my recent column suggesting it’s madness to spend their entire transfer budget on one player. OK, I will say that… but I take little satisfaction in pointing it out. The fact is, they have a glaring weakness in their team, and that can’t be fixed by signing Jude Bellingham on his own. I have a question for you. What is Liverpool’s first-choice midfield? Even after a shocking season, it’s probably Henderson-thiago-fabinho. Second question: how many goals have they scored between them? The answer is a big fat zero. Yep, you read that right. No goals from a midfield trio that so very nearly wrote history. In any competition. So far, they have made a combined 99 appearances, and not a single goal. It gets worse. In all those appearances, they have three assists between them, two for Henderson and one from Thiago. And that is where the disaster of this season stems from. You look at the Premier League table, and for all the criticism of Liverpool’s defence, they still have the fifth-best record, better than Manchester United and Tottenham, and not much different to City and Arsenal. Yet goals are a massive problem – despite Mo Salah having another inconsistent season. Nunez has done Okish, they’ve been without Diaz and Jota for long periods, and Gakpo, well, not great but he’s new. From midfield though, it’s nothing. Keita hasn’t scored either, neither has Jones nor Milner; Oxlade-chamberlain and Bajcetic have one apiece. That’s two goals from seven midfielders. Only Harvey Elliott has a half-respectable total. It’s the same with assists, seven from 11 midfielders used this season. Compare that with Manchester City, and you see the problem – 35 goals from midfield and 40 assists. So there’s no way Bellingham alone will transform that. I think they need five or six new signings, but that’s not going to happen… so Klopp will have to settle for three or four. And three of those need to be established, top-class midfielders.

He’s losing three this summer, maybe five players in total leaving, and it’s clear that the likes of Fabinho and Henderson have struggled at times, while Thiago has missed a lot of games oncemore.

You could justifiably argue Klopp needs a new first-team midfield.

So is it wise to spend most of your money on one player? Not a chance.

Even if they exceed their £150million record-spend under FSG for a single summer and sign Bellingham, Liverpool would be left with about £30m to buy three more players. You ain’t doing that in the Premier League and getting away with it.

So spread it around. I’m not being disrespectful when I say Mason Mount isn’t worth more than £20-30m. Not because he’s a poor player, but because he only has a year left on his contract. No way should any club pay more than that.

I know the likes of Mac Allister and Caicedo will cost more, but combined it probably would only be around the fee Dortmund are asking for Bellingham.

I think Klopp needs to evolve his team a bit now. When we’re talking of assists, Alexanderarnold and Robertson have 13 between them in all competitions all season, when usually it’s more than three times that.

So have sides worked them out? If so, then they need to work a way around that, and the answer is to provide far more creativity from midfield.

Mount will provide that, Mac Allister too. Spend the money on those two, and you still have change to buy a holding midfielder. It’s just financial reality.

Henderson, Thiago and Fabinho have scored a big fat zero from midfield this season