It is clear, Jürgen Klopp knows the importance of the winter transfer market

There's no sign of any activity in January, for the moment at least, but heading into the summer transfer window, a new center-back may be on the agenda for Liverpool. Joël Matip has almost certainly played his final game for the club, having sustained a season-ending anterior cruciate ligament injury a matter of months before the expiry of his contract. Matip has been assured that he can complete his rehabilitation on Merseyside, but his Anfield career could almost be over.

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The club's scouting department is running the rule over possible replacements, and three candidates have emerged in recent weeks. According to David Lynch, writing for This is Anfield, Liverpool is 'keeping tabs' on Ousmane Diomande at Sporting, while Sky Germany's Patrick Berger says that the Reds have shown an interest in Borussia Mönchengladbach's Ko Itakura. The Bundesliga club is trying to negotiate a €15m release clause out of his contract.

Elsewhere, French outlet Telefoot claims that the club has joined PSG and Real Madrid in the race to sign Leny Yoro from Lille, with the Ligue 1 side set to demand a fee of more than €57m. Yoro is among the most highly rated young talents in his position. What, then, are the similarities between these three players, and the overarching themes that can illuminate Liverpool's vision for the future of their defense? In truth, there aren't many that jump out, for instance, while Diomande and Yoro are pre-peak, Itakura is bang in the theoretical prime of his career at 26.

Data-wise, it's noteworthy, if unsurprising given Jürgen Klopp's style of play, that all three players are exceptionally precise in possession with passing accuracies between 90.8 and 91.3 per cent. But the most interesting common thread is all three players' relative lack of experience. In the past, Liverpool's recruitment team liked to have a 175-game sample of top-level football when assessing targets.

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The signing of Edwards

The Reds signed for a fee of at least €30m between Klopp's arrival in October 2015 and the departure of sporting director Michael Edwards at the end of the 2021/22 season, and how many games they played. He played in teams in the top European category before arriving. Parting with just over €30 million should be considered a risk, so it was important that each player was thoroughly vetted at a representative level.