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Jarell Quansah’s lucrative sale and Joe Gomez’s latest injury flare-up have left Arne Slot alarmingly short of senior centre-backs.

Liverpool sanctioned Quansah’s £30 million-plus move to Bayer Leverkusen at the beginning of July.

The club protected itself with a future buy-back clause, yet the departure still sliced the squad’s specialist options to Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate and Gomez.

Gomez has flown home from the Asian pre-season tour to treat an Achilles complaint.

It is the latest entry in a ledger that is unfortunately full of incidents like this.

Quansah made 58 senior appearances before Leverkusen’s record outlay secured the 22-year-old.

Slot insists the sale funds future business, but he openly admitted “we haven’t replaced Jarell yet”.

Pre-season has seen Ryan Gravenberch filling in at centre-half and Wataru Endo touted as emergency cover. With Konaté yet to extend a contract that expires in 2026, the need for a reliable, athletic defender has become urgent.

That’s where Greek international Konstantinos Koulierakis comes in, with reliable reporter Giannis Chorianopoulos – of Greek outlet Sporttime – suggesting that Liverpool scouted Koulierakis last season.

The Wolfsburg defender has been capped 14 times by his nation already.

Konstantinos Koulierakis.

Wolfsburg, who bought him from PAOK for €11.75 million last summer, are expected to demand £34-41 million.

Slot’s high defensive line requires centre-backs who can sprint into wide spaces and pass incisively through the thirds.

Koulierakis averaged 6.82 WhoScored rating across 34 matches, completing 88% of his passes while ranking in the top-10% of Europe’s U23 defenders for progressive carries.

His left-footedness offers natural balance alongside right-footers van Dijk or Konate.

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