Liverpool have submitted a second bid to sign Romeo Lavia in their pursuit to continue their midfield rebuild, but now a new update has emerged on the club's next move.
Who do Liverpool want to sign after Romeo Lavia?
According to reports coming out of Spain, Liverpool are now interested in signing Barcelona centre-back Andreas Christensen this summer.
As per the report, it is claimed that the Reds have already had a formal offer of €30m (£25.6m) rejected by the La Liga giants for their defender, but Jurgen Klopp is willing to improve the bid to secure Christensen's signature this summer, with a €50m (£43m) offer being prepared to present in the coming days.
Liverpool are hoping that Barcelona's financial troubles will encourage them to sacrifice Christensen in their pursuit to strengthen other areas of the squad.
How good is Andreas Christensen?
With the exit of Jordan Henderson confirmed and Fabinho set to follow his former club captain to Saudi Arabia imminently, further reinforcements, such as the incredibly promising Lavia, in the midfield set-up have taken priority at Anfield in recent weeks.
However, it is clear that Liverpool are also keen to strengthen their defensive set-up too with links to a number of defenders across Europe including Joska Gvardiol, Perr Schuurs, Jurrien Timber and Levi Colwill, but now it seems that Klopp has set his sights on Barcelona's centre-back.
The Anfield faithful will be familiar with Christensen owing to his decade-long tenure with Premier League rivals Chelsea which ended last summer when his contract expired, and he joined Barcelona on a free transfer.
Over 23 La Liga appearances last season, the 27-year-old titan – hailed "extraordinary" by Xabi Alonso – scored one goal, tallied up an impressive 94% pass completion rate and won 60% of his duels combined, as well as averaging two clearances per game, proving he is a huge presence in the back-line and competent in possession of the ball.
The potential arrival of Christensen could be bad news for Joe Gomez, as the Denmark international has a wealth of experience covering both the right-sided centre-back role and right full-back position too, so would likely push the Liverpool mainstay even further down the pecking order at Anfield next season.
When comparing Christensen's output to the Liverpool defender last season, the Barcelona ace outperformed Gomez in a number of key defensive attributes including pass completion (94% v 85.7%), percentage of dribblers tackled (62.5% v 57.9%), goal-creating actions per 90 (0.10 v 0.06) and aerial duels won (68.9% v 54.8%), as per FBref.
What that suggests is that the Dane is a great deal more composed on the ball, while he's also far better in aerial situations.
Whilst the Merseyside giants have not lost any of their first-team defenders during the huge clear-out that has taken place this summer, Joel Matip is now in the last 12 months of his contract and Ibrahima Konate is still finding his feet after suffering injury issues last season, so bringing in a fresh perspective would be advantageous.
With that being said, if Liverpool could strike a deal for Christensen it would provide Klopp with a defender who can make an instant impact on the defensive set-up with his wealth of knowledge and experience in the Premier League to provide Virgil van Dijk with a worthy partner.