Liverpool face big Romeo Lavia question and £50m answer may not be enough

With a week to go until the start of the Premier League season, Liverpool remain without a holding midfielder and have big questions to answer

Liverpool have long prided themselves on their efficiency in the transfer market.

Avoiding drawn-out sagas, targets are identified months in advance with the club moving quickly to land their desired would-be Reds – and without paying over the odds.

Meanwhile, outgoing players have often been sold for hefty fees, with Philippe Coutinho’s £142m switch to Barcelona the best example. Dominic Solanke’s £24m move to AFC Bournemouth, Rhian Brewster’s £23.5m transfer to Sheffield United and Neco Williams’ £17m exit to Nottingham Forest are some of the most lauded business.

Consequently, Liverpool are rarely seen concluding incoming deals once the action really gets underway, with it inevitably the preference to have most signings snapped up before the start of pre-season. But this summer, has some of the club’s mythical transfer magic worn off?

From Jurgen Klopp’s 28 summer signings since taking over as Reds manager in October 2015, 22 were completed well before the start of the Premier League season, with 12 even confirmed in advance of officially becoming Liverpool players on July 1. And while the club’s latest signing, Dominik Szoboszlai, was signed on July 2, that’s still in advance of the start of pre-season.

Consequently, Klopp has only signed seven players in August during his time at Anfield. Even then, Kostas Tsimikas’ arrival fell before the club’s first pre-season friendly in the summer of 2020 in unprecedented Covid times. Thiago Alcantara and Diogo Jota would join the Greek the following month, days after the Reds’ mid-September Premier League opener, but this is the exception rather than the rule.