Ozan Kabak has certainly had a dramatic start to his Liverpool career.
The Turkish centre-back, signed as injury cover on-loan from FC Schalke in January, was immediately propelled into the starting line-up but endured an inconsistent beginning at Anfield.
Reports from German outlet Bild now suggest that the Reds have elected to make his switch a permanent one in the summer after just over three months at Anfield but they should wait even longer before making that call.
Should Liverpool sign Kabak permanently?
Yes!
Absolutely not!
In his time on Merseyside, the £22.5m-rated centre-back has played nine games for Liverpool in all competitions, a run that has seen the Reds claim five victories, as well as five clean sheets.
However, he has also played his part in a few calamitous performances from Jurgen Klopp’s men – 3-1 defeats to both Leicester City and recently Real Madrid immediately coming to mind.
His defensive impact is not all too inspiring either. Whilst the Reds’ win percentage does increase from 50% to 55% when Kabak plays, they concede just 0.1 goals per game fewer than when the Turk does not feature – a barely noticeable figure.
Considering that Liverpool could apparently be set to fork out approximately 30m euros for the Schalke man should they elect to sign him permanently, those statistics and figure is something that is surely not befitting a defender that would simply be signed as just cover.
Heading into next season, Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez will be back to fitness, whilst Joel Matip will also likely be back in contention for Jurgen Klopp’s starting XI.
Whilst it could certainly be argued that any potential signing would alleviate any injury crisis, as has been the case this season, Liverpool do not yet need to make a decision on the £65k-a-week earning Kabak and instead should wait until the end of the season to see if his Anfield career gets any less dramatic.
With news of Ibrahima Konate’s potential big-money arrival at Anfield in the summer, spending another big sum on a new centre-back would surely raise some eyebrows among FSG who will be keen to a tight ship is run.
Having Van Dijk, Gomez, Matip, Phillips and Konate, and then splashing out a sizeable fee on Kabak just seems like a complete waste of resources.
Klopp appears to be heading for a foolish mistake over the 6 foot 1 beast.
AND in more news, read why Liverpool must jettison Naby Keita in the summer amidst Premier League interest…