Liverpool are reportedly currently not planning to sign a new centre-back in January despite their mounting injury problems in the position.
The talismanic Virgil van Dijk could be out for the rest of the season after suffering ACL damage in the Merseyside Derby last month.
And Joe Gomez also looks set for a length spell on the sidelines after injuring his tendon while on international duty with England last week.
Joel Matip and Fabinho are the only two senior players left who are comfortable playing in the position, and both have suffered injury problems of their own recently.
Yet despite this, according to The Athletic Liverpool have no intentions of venturing into the transfer market during the winter, and are instead already planning their recruitment for next summer.
The January window is notoriously difficult to do business in, with teams generally reluctant to let their star players leave halfway through the season.
The Reds have been linked with Napoli's Kalidou Koulibaly and Dayot Upamecano of RB Leipzig, but they would be looking at paying a huge price for either.
And it may be that manager Jurgen Klopp has faith in one of the youth players stepping up instead, with 19-year-old Rhys Williams impressing when called upon in recent weeks.
Klopp has also hinted one of his midfielders could be converted into a centre-back in a similar way Javier Mascherano did in his latter years at Barcelona.
Speaking last month about his side's options at the back, Klopp said: "We have other options like [Jordan] Henderson, or Gini [Wijnaldum] or James [Milner], or Robbo [Andy Robertson], he can play centre-half as well.
"They are all not smaller than Javier Mascherano, for example, and he played pretty well in that position [for Barcelona].
"So yes, we still have one or two options and one of them we will choose."
