Liverpool have a lot of work to do this summer in hope of giving Arne Slot the best possible start as Reds manager.
Jurgen Klopp has laid some solid foundations at Liverpool and the Reds board must now do all they can to build on those.
One area Liverpool could really do with strengthening is at centre-back. Joel Matip has left the club and Joe Gomez’s Anfield future is uncertain.
The Reds have been linked with a host of top defenders in recent months, such as Willian Pacho, Jonathan Tah and Piero Hincapie.
Now, Ben Jacobs has provided an update on GiveMeSport about the speculation involving the Bundesliga trio.
What has Ben Jacobs said about Liverpool targets Willian Pacho, Jonathan Tah and Piero Hincapie?
Jacobs says “there is substance” regarding links between Liverpool and Pacho, but not so much about Tah and Hincapie.
“We know that Liverpool want a centre-back, and there is substance to the Willian Pacho links,” said the CBS journalist.
“I’m told that Jonathan Tah and Piero Hincapie are not players that Liverpool are going to proceed with.
“Hincapie is the one that we constantly hear linked with Liverpool, but there’s never really been anything substantial to that.
“First of all, even though he’s not played week in week out, Leverkusen don’t want to sell Hincapie, and he’s contracted until 2027.
“But sources that I speak to about Hincapie and Liverpool – on the Liverpool side – very much dismiss the idea that they’ve ever really been close to signing Hincapie, so that one is not going to happen.”
Who is Liverpool target Willian Pacho?
Willian Pacho came through the ranks at Ecuadorian club Independiente del Valle before joining Belgian side Royal Antwerp in January 2022.
It didn’t take him long to make an impact and, just 18 months later, he was on the move again, linking up with Eintracht Frankfurt last summer.
He enjoyed a superb maiden season at Frankfurt, making 40 appearances in all competitions and clocking up a particularly impressive statistic.
As per Goal.com, Pacho won the ball 293 times in 2023/24, which puts him second among defenders across Europe’s ‘Big Five’ leagues – even above Arsenal’s William Saliba (278).
“His box-defending is absolutely world-class,” club manager Toppmoller said earlier in the season. “He doesn’t allow anything to get past him.”
The Bundesliga website has said about Pacho: “A left-sided central defender with superb spatial awareness, inch-perfect passing skills and a tackling game that’s been honed to perfection, Pacho is proving to be a tailor-made replacement for Frankfurt predecessor Evan Ndicka, now of Roma.
“He also has the technical nous to be able to play out from the back, and the pace to stay touch-tight to speedy opposition players.”
In terms of price tag, Fabrizio Romano told CaughtOffside in April: “Pacho has a price tag of around €50-60million (£43-51.5million) and it looks like an open race for his signature this summer.”