Who should Liverpool sign? Kalidou Koulibaly vs Diego Carlos

The opening of the 2020 summer transfer window is fast approaching and one of the most likely areas Liverpool will look to strengthen is centre back. Kalidou Koulibaly and Diego Carlos are some of the main targets, but who are they?

Its been a very long time since Liverpool had such a wealth of defensive talent. You would probably have to go back to the Rafa Benitez era to find such a strong collection of talented centre backs all on the Liverpool pay roll.

Though Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip look very secure in there positions at the club, the same can not be said for Dejan Lovren. In fact it looks increasingly likely that Lovren will be leaving this summer.

It’s a move that will split opinion for various reasons. The main reason though is that Lovren is one of the only players in my lifetime who has managed to be over rated and under rated!

It’s become almost fashionable to mock Lovren as he has put in some truly woeful displays in the past. He certainly didn’t help the narrative when he announced to the world how highly he thought of himself either.

"“I think people should recognise that I am also one of the best defenders in the world and not just talk nonsense.”"

As hilarious as that claim was to some, at the time he had just played in a Champions League and World Cup final. He is often lambasted for being a dreadful player which simply isn’t true.

More from Rush The Kop

• Set to return, Virgil Van Dijk facing heavy criticism back home
• Liverpool making late comebacks all the rage once again
• Wolves tilt gives Klopp opportunity to tinker with lineup following international duty
• Players to watch in the matchup with Wolves
• Predicting Liverpool’s Next Five Premier League Fixtures

On the flip side though, Lovren is also highly rated in some quarters and particularly in his own mind. The truth is somewhere in between and the reality is that replacing him with a better player is not actually that easy or cheap!

So who exactly could replace the departing Croatian? It’s fair to say nobody is going to sign for a club to be the fourth choice centre back. Being a position which traditionally is not subject to rotation, it is one of the hardest areas to build up strength in depth.

This could force Liverpool to seek an alternative route and look to sign a player who is first team ready. That would need to be a player who will have the self belief that they can take the place of Gomez and start alongside van Dijk.

Defenders good enough to compete with Gomez are few and far between. However there are two players who’ve been linked to Liverpool this year who would do just that. Kalidou Koulibaly and Diego Carlos Santos Silva.

Click through the slides below as we go through their strengths and weaknesses.