Conor Coady says Marc Guehi would have caused drastic formation change at Liverpool

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Liverpool missed out on a player who could have drastically changed their fortunes this season in Marc Guehi.

Crystal Palace pulled the plug on Guehi’s sale in the final hours of the summer transfer window despite agreeing a £35 million deal as the club failed to identify a suitable replacement.

Guehi played a crucial role in Palace’s last-gasp victory over his potential employers at Selhurst Park as he assisted Eddie Nketiah’s 95th-minute winner to inflict Arne Slot’s first loss of the campaign.

The Reds’ 2-1 loss against Chelsea last time out marked the third consecutive defeat across all competitions since the defeat in South London, heading into the international break.

Now that Slot has the appropriate time to return to the drawing board and address the glaring issues in his squad, there is a growing feeling that missing out on Guehi will have significant ramifications for the Reds.

Marc Guehi would have been a huge signing for Liverpool

When discussing the loss at Stamford Bridge on the Football Daily podcast, host Chris Sutton said Slot will regret not signing Guehi, whereas ex-Red Conor Coady believes the England international would have given Liverpool more flexibility in the backline.

“You just wonder whether that not signing Marc Guehi will come back to bite them in the backside, because they don’t have strength and depth and cover in there. Like, if you look at Arsenal, you got to say that you look at Liverpool’s squad, Arsenal’s squad, and you’re thinking, blimey, Arsenal don’t have to look strong.

If Liverpool get another one or two injuries, if Van Dijk got injured, for argument’s sake, then they’re in a bit of a bother,” Sutton said.

Mark Chapman added, “And they might have used Mark Guehi as a right back if they needed to, to be honest with you.”

“Or a back three or something like that. Yeah, you could play them in any shows. I agree with Chris, I think he would have been huge,” Coady replied.

Liverpool have struggled defensively all season as every regular starter among the backline, excluding Virgil van Dijk, has massively underwhelmed thus far.

It is clear that the current style of play is not working at Anfield; the Reds cannot maintain possession for prolonged periods and have looked far too vulnerable in transitions.

Whereas Guehi has helped Palace keep six clean sheets in 11 outings across all competitions at the beginning of the season.

With Giovanni Leoni suffering a season-ending injury and Ibrahima Konate’s “poor” form becoming a serious cause of concern for the Reds, Slot has limited options to rotate his defensive unit and has been forced to persist with his underperforming stars.

What Arne Slot said about missing out on Marc Guehi

Liverpool will likely move for a centre-back in the January transfer window, but whether they will reignite their interest in Guehi, rather than waiting until he becomes a free agent at the end of the season, remains to be seen.

The Reds boss overlooked Joe Gomez at Stamford Bridge and instead moved Ryan Gravenberch into central defence when substituting Konate – the lack of options in central defence is alarming.

Slot admitted his disappointment in not signing Guehi, and the Dutchman will undoubtedly regret not pursuing the defender’s signature earlier in the transfer window.

“Yeah, yeah. That is definitely the first part. The second part is, at Liverpool, we have so many good players, so we would have liked to sign him. That’s out in the open, so I’m not going to deny that. But I also know, and knew, that we have very good options in that position as well.

“But we are a club that, if we see an opportunity in the market and we can sign a very good player, we are always trying to do so. But if that doesn’t work out, I’m more than happy to work with the players we’ve got. For us, it was, of course, a disappointment, but for the player, I assume as well, because he was expecting to come to us.”