Liverpool should take defensive spending to £120m with audacious Lewis Dunk offer, says Garth Crooks

Getty Images

Garth Crooks claims Liverpool should continue to bulk out their defensive ranks with an ‘audacious’ offer for Brighton’s Lewis Dunk.

The Reds broke the world-record transfer fee for a defender when they announced the £75million signing of Virgil van Dijk from Southampton ahead of the window, though Crooks seems to think more is needed.

Chris Hughton’s side kept two clean sheets in their four games over the festive period, and sit 12th with just over half their debut Premier League season gone.

With academy product Dunk having played every minute in the league this season, Crooks thinks he’s almost ready for a top-four move.

“It was Dunk's performance against Watford, and again at Newcastle, that left me thinking he is a top-four defender if ever I saw one,” Crooks wrote when naming his BBC Sport team of the festive period.

“Whether he can mentally cope in that environment would be my only concern, but in terms of his defensive qualities I don't think I've seen a better centre-back this season. I've seen more polished performances but nothing quite so efficient.

“It struck me that Liverpool could do themselves a great service by making an audacious move for Dunk. What would he cost - £35m in today's grossly over-inflated market?

“Offer £45m and I've no doubt Brighton boss Chris Hughton would drive him to Anfield himself. Could Brighton afford to turn that down?

“Alongside Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool would suddenly have two towering defenders who know how to defend. They should be paying me a consultancy for this column!”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT