Marko Grujic has officially become the first signing of the Jurgen Klopp era at Liverpool after the Serbian midfielder put pen to paper on a four and a half year deal. The 19 year old will return to Red Star Belgrade on loan until the end of the season.
Liverpool Football Club are delighted to confirm the signing of Serbia midfielder Marko Grujic. #LFC pic.twitter.com/mPwcWuA9Ti
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) January 6, 2016
Grujic's move has been on the cards for quite a while now. There had seemed to be a bit of a hiccup when his Dad went on one hell of a rant demanding that he stay in Belgrade, but it seems that has been sorted out and the athletic central midfielder will be able to fight for a place in Klopp's side when he returns to Anfield in the summer.
And while future plans are all well and good, there's some rather more pressing holes to be filled in Klopp's squad at the moment. Dejan Lovren and Philippe Coutinho both suffered 'bad injuries' in last night's win over Stoke in the Capital One Cup.
In what would have been unthinkable at the start of the season, Lovren's loss may be a bigger concern to the Liverpool boss considering his recent upturn in form and the fact that Martin Skrtel and Joe Gomez are already long term absentees. Kolo Toure and Mamadou Sakho are the club's only remaining senior central defenders and Klopp admitted that something would have to be done in the coming weeks to sort that out.
It seems the first step in that regard will be to welcome Tiago Ilori back from his loan spell at Aston Villa. The Portuguese youth international had been highly regarded for a number of years and the quite a few Liverpool fans were less than delighted with the fact that he was being loaned out once again at the start of the season.
However, the fact that he hasn't made a single appearance for a woeful Villa side this season seemed to indicate that he was unlikely to have had too much of a future at Anfield. However, now that it's a situation of needs must, Liverpool have opened negotiations to bring the 22 year old back into the fold.
It had been thought that Villa were looking to cut the loan short anyway but now that Liverpool are in desperate need of defensive reinforcements, an early Anfield return suits all parties. Liverpool face Exeter in the FA Cup on Friday night. And, as if their defence didn't have enough to worry about, that means that they'll have to face down the considerable goal threat of a certain Clinton Morrison.
