Andoni Iraola gives sneak peak into €110m Liverpool transfer plan

Andoni Iraola gives sneak peak into €110m Liverpool transfer plan Liverpool beat Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday evening and Andoni Iraola offered a sneak peek into a major transfer plan. It was a good win for Liverpool on Tuesday, all things considered. Yes, they conceded Tottenham's first goal of the season but this was a heavily rotated side playing against Premier League opposition. And they won. And won well, scoring three times with some brilliant goals. Alexis Mac Allister, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai all produced real class - even if the latter was on another level to the rest. But this was about more than the goals. It was a night for experimentation across the pitch as Andoni Iraola offered a glimpse into some new ideas. One of those was a €110m transfer plan that Liverpool simply must get right. Liverpool's defensive plan There is no bigger problem at Liverpool right now than replacing Virgil van Dijk. His contract is set to expire at the end of this season and even if he gets a new one, he'll be 36 and not the reliable force he has been. Honestly, it's absolutely ridiculous that a 35-year-old Van Dijk is still as good as he is and still arguably the best centre-back in the country. That can't go on forever. Liverpool have done remarkably little planning for life after Van Dijk, though. There is no senior centre-back contracted to the club beyond this season - Jeremy Jacquet and Giovanni Leoni are the only two and the eldest will be 22. But there clearly is an ideal plan here and we got to see it on Tuesday. Ronald Araujo is a defender in his prime and Liverpool have the option to keep him permanently for around €50m ( the Athletic ). The dream is that Araujo absolutely smashes it this season, prompting Liverpool into triggering that option. Then they've got a natural partnership between him and Jacquet, built up over the course of a season while Van Dijk was still at the club. Tuesday was a peek at that plan. Van Dijk didn't play, with Araujo and the €60m Jacquet forming a partnership in the second half. And a solid one, too. It's step one towards the best-case scenario. Liverpool shouldn't want to blood a completely new partnership post-Van Dijk as it'll be hard enough to replace him as it is. With this, though, there's a chance to get something working before he departs. So you can expect to see plenty more of Jacquet and Araujo.