Hughes tasked with performing BACK surgery

CUT to the office of Richard Hughes. And there pinned to the wall is a lengthy to-do list for the Liverpool sporting director this summer.

- By IAN DOYLE Chief LFC Writer

Right-back? Tick. Attacking midfielder? Tick. Left-back? Tick. Goalkeeper? Well, one was sorted already but a few more ticks was no bother. Striker? In progress.

To say the Reds have been busy in the market this summer would be an understatement, their outlay of almost £200million - not counting the £70m-plus that will be required to take Hugo Ekitike from Eintracht Frankfurt, nor the £29m agreed for Giorgi Mamardashvili last year - already the club's highest in a single transfer window.

There is, though, one area of the team for which there hasn't been a permanent new addition in more than four years.

And Hughes and his recruitment colleagues will almost certainly have no option but to address the matter sooner rather than later with the start of the Premier League season now less than a month away.

Arne Slot's insistence there are two senior options for every position highlights Liverpool are now one short of the desired four recognised centre-back alternatives.

Liverpool permitting the £35m sale of Jarell Quansah to Bayer Leverkusen raised more than a few eyebrows regardless of whether it left the squad, at least temporarily, down on numbers.