Sky Sports: Liverpool scouting Dejan Lovren replacement

Liverpool are scouting for Dejan Lovren’s replacement in the squad, reported Sky Sports, and have watched one Bundesliga starlet.

We’ve seen the writing on the wall for Lovren’s career at Anfield for some time now, and it looks like Jurgen Klopp and Michael Edwards are putting things in place to bring in a fourth-choice central defender in the summer transfer window.

Sky Sports wrote that that club have been looking at Eintracht Frankfurt starlet Evan Ndicka, but face competition from Arsenal for his signature.

The 20-year-old joined Frankfurt two years ago from Auxerre for just £4.95 million, and has attracted attention from across Europe for his playing style.

With only nine Premier League appearances under his belt this season, it appears as if Dejan Lovren is being eased out of the door. Bringing in Evan Ndicka, who has 42 Bundesliga appearances to his name and Europa League experience, would accelerate that.

He also sits squarely in the right age bracket. As a 20-year-old at Liverpool, he wouldn’t expect to be starting regularly straight away. The defender could learn, pick up minutes in the cup and come into the side when injury dictated it.

And then, in the next few years, Joel Matip could move on and Ndicka could move up through the squad in terms of importance.

The Reds are good at planning for the future in this way and it’s highly encouraging to see. With a value of £22.50 million, according to Transfermarkt, the starlet wouldn’t come super cheap. But with the amount of money Liverpool could make in the next transfer window through sales, there will be cash to play with.

With Valencia, Sevilla, Inter and AC Milan also sniffing around the France U21 international, things might move fast and Liverpool will have to move quickly with them in they want to secure the in-demand Evan Ndicka.