This Liverpool midfield needs a shake-up and Kalvin Phillips is the man they need. He’s humble, versatile and has years ahead of him

IF there’s one player Liverpool would do well to sign as a replacement for Jordan Henderson or James Milner, it’s Kalvin Phillips – a man they will come up against today.

The Leeds United star is proven now in the Premier League and at international level with England.

He’s humble, versatile and has already shown he can overcome challenges in his career.

Phillips can play the holding role when he needs to, although Fabinho will largely do that at Liverpool, which means he could play slightly further forward and show off his ability to instigate attacks and his array of long and short passes.

At 25, he’s the age I was when I joined The Reds from Nottingham Forest – the perfect age because you know your backside from your elbow then as a player.

You’ve a good four or five years ahead of you, prime years, and I can see him creating all sorts of openings for Liverpool’s vibrant front three.

Liverpool in turn could offer Champions League football and the opportunity to add even more of an attacking impetus to his game.

So I’d love to see my old club go for him and then double down by moving for Jude Bellingham as well. Bellingham is known to admire Liverpool and with him, Phillips, Fabinho, Naby Keita, Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones, the club would have a futureproofed engine room that could make them title challengers for the next five to seven years.

I hope, then, that they are already in the ears of Phillips’ agent and Bellingham’s, too, working on getting deals done for the next summer or, with the latter, maybe two. Because the only department they compare unfavourably with Manchester City is in midfield and it’s something they need to get sorted, whatever the cost.

I don t look at Liverpool s midfield and see anyone who knows

they have to be outstanding to keep their

place

Nagging

If they think they can do it on the cheap, and there’s a little bit of a nagging suspicion the club owners, Fenway Sports Group think that way, then they could well revert to being also-rans in the title race again.

I’m not saying they need to employ the economics of the madhouse to make signings – we’ve all seen what that has done to Real Madrid and Barcelona.

But there’s a middle ground compared with what those two clubs have done in recent years and what

Liverpool have done this summer in signing only Ibrahima Konate.

It’s normal business practice to speculate to accumulate and it’s as if there’s a little bit of, ‘We have the same team as the Premier League win, therefore can expect the

same outcome’, from FSG.

But the reality is football clubs need to add two or three players in key areas every year to freshen things up and keep those already there on their toes.

Look at the signing of Diogo Jota from Wolves a year ago – he immediately scored goals and that in turn meant Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino had to respond.

I remember Jamie Redknapp saying I was like a breath of fresh air with the way I ran at people when I arrived at Liverpool and Robbie Fowler, who’d scored 31 goals the previous season, found himself on the bench.

But he responded in the best possible way and the club were better for both of us.

Outstanding

I don’t look at Liverpool’s midfield and see anyone who knows they have to be outstanding, world class, to keep their place.

Which is why Liverpool need to act now to continue to be competitive.

If they don’t, they can look at Manchester United, Arsenal, even themselves in the not-too-distant past, and they will see how difficult it is to get back to the levels they have been at these past couple of seasons.