Former Liverpool Striker Urges Club to Sell Coutinho in January & Bring in Defenders

Former Liverpool striker Dean Saunders has suggested that Jurgen Klopp should sell Philippe Coutinho in January and use the funds generated from his sale to buy new defenders.

Coutinho was a target for Barcelona all summer, but the Reds remained adamant in keeping him, despite his wishes to leave the club as well.

Saunders, who played just a single season at Liverpool, scoring 23 goals, is of the view that the club needs to strengthen their defence if they are to even dream of competing for the Premier League title. And the best way forward would be to sell the wantaway midfielder in order to facilitate moves for at least three more defenders.

"If Liverpool want to win trophies, if they want to get to that next level, they need to improve their defence," he said to talkSPORT.

"One way around that would be to sell Coutinho next summer for £130million and buy three new defenders and a defensive midfield player...and maybe a goalkeeper as well.

"Liverpool's front three are already brilliant, so I'd take the money for Coutinho and that's one way you can get the back-four better.

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"I wonder if the manager is sitting there this morning thinking, 'is my back-four good enough to go where I want to go with this team?'

"Would Loris Karius get in Manchester United's team? Would Joe Gomez? Would Alberto Moreno? Would Joel Matip or Dejan Lovren or Ragnar Klavan?

"Go through the seven best teams in Europe, none of those players are getting in those teams, so as a manager you sit there and think, 'are they good enough, and if not what can I do about it?' 

"He could change the way they play to protect them a little bit more, or change the personnel. They are not far away, Liverpool. But again, great teams can win games 1-0, and at the moment Liverpool can't do that against the top teams."