Just three weeks into his new job at Anfield fans can already see a difference in the attitude of Liverpool’s players since the arrival of former Borussia Dortmund trainer Jürgen Klopp, and as the January transfer window gets closer the questions are starting to be asked as to which players Jürgen Klopp wants to sign for the Reds as he prepares to work on his latest project.
Like any new manager at a club Klopp will looks to sign players he either had experience with, or players that he had lined up to bring to Dortmund prior to his departure, and with this in mind we think the 48-year-old will target Dortmund centre-back Neven Subotic given the fact he needs cover for Martin Skrtel, Mamadou Sakho and Dejan Lovren with teenager Joe Gomez now out for the season with a knee injury and Portuguese youngster Tiago Ilori on a season long loan at Aston Villa with an option to buy at between £6-£9 million.
Subotic was hand-picked by Klopp from his former club Mainz 05 and has over 200 appearances for the North Rhine Westphalia club, but has fallen out of favour with new trainer Thomas Tuchel who prefers to make Mats Hummels and Sokratis Papastathopoulos his preferred centre-back paring, leaving the door open for Klopp to poach the 6ft 3in Serbian international.
The 26-year-old Subotic would not only bring with him a wealth of experience after winning two Bundesliga titles and a trip to the Champions League final, but the ability to hit the ground running at Anfield having already worked with Klopp in the past.
As a January signing Subotic makes a lot of sense and with him not fitting in with Tuchel’s plans at Dortmund Liverpool may be able to pick him up for a reasonable price.
German football expert Raphael Honigstein also agrees with our assessment saying: “I think there is probably a deal to be made with Neven Subotic, who’s a bit out of favour. He’s one of the few players that was personally picked by Klopp when he was at Dortmund from Mainz.”
