Martin Keown urges Liverpool to sign towering Premier League centre-back
Liverpool have been encouraged to raid Southampton once more and sign defender Jannik Vestergaard by Martin Keown.
The champions are no strangers to signing players from the south-coast club with a number of players heading north over the years.
Sadio Mane, Virgil van Dijk, Nathaniel Clyne, Dejan Lovren and Adam Lallana have all arrived at Anfield from Saints in recent years.
And pundit Keown says Jurgen Klopp could do a lot worse than signing 28-year-old Vestergaard.
“I was looking at Vestergaard playing for Southampton, and I will say this on record. I have not seen a better central defender this season, and I looked at his contract situation.
“I am not trying to cause a problem for Southampton, and I thought that maybe that would be a player that Jurgen Klopp would go after. He has been brilliant this season. He is injured at the moment,” Keown told talkSPORT.
Southampton have had a brilliant season to date and Vestergaard has been a huge player in that. Saints sit sixth in the table and have conceded just 19 goals in 17 games with Vestergaard a huge presence at the back.
But one problem Liverpool will have over a deal is that the 6ft 6in Denmark international is currently injured.
The towering centre-back has missed the last three games with a knee problem.
Subscribe for free to TEAMtalk’s daily newsletter…
Hasenhuttl said: “The injury of Jannik, it was an old injury from an international game where he was overstretching his leg and the knee was maybe starting to make problems.
“It was getting worse and worse and he had to stop now.”
It’s understood the former Werder Bremen man could be sidelined until next month.
It’s unlikely Klopp would go for another centre-back who is injured. He already has Van Dijk, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez missing from his squad due to injury.
Vestergaard is out of contract in 2022, and so would be ripe for plucking from Southampton, but his knee problem makes any deal unlikely.
Owen hails Thiago
Meanwhile, Michael Owen has waxed lyrical about one Liverpool star’s performance against Aston Villa and claims he will never tire of watching him play football.
The Reds produced a second-half blitz on Friday to get past Villa’s team of youngsters and secure FA Cup progress.
The hosts had to field their youth after a coronavirus outbreak in their first-team camp throughout the week.
Nonetheless, Villa put in a spirited performance and had levelled at 1-1 before half time. Louie Barry’s goal came with Liverpool having failed to add to Sadio Mane’s fourth-minute opener.
After the match, Jurgen Klopp had his say on the massive mistake Liverpool rectified at Villa Park.
The Reds were able to take control after the break, in part, thanks to the half-time introduction of Thiago Alcantara.
“This fella just makes me want to watch football 24 hours a day,” Owen told BT Sport.