Liverpool are making big Romeo Lavia mistake as Fabinho exit explained

Liverpool are interested in signing Southampton's Romeo Lavia as a replacement for Fabinho

With 12 days to go until Liverpool start their Premier League season away at Chelsea, the Reds are currently without a senior holding midfielder.

Fabinho completed his £40m move to Al-Ittihad on Monday night, following in the footsteps of Jordan Henderson who had completed a controversial switch to Al-Ettifaq the week before. While Liverpool always plotted to revamp their midfield this summer, they were ultimately caught off-guard by interest in the experienced pair from Saudi Arabia.

Following the duo’s exits, the Reds are left with Stefan Bajcetic and Tyler Morton as their only recognised deeper options. Yet boasting a combined 13 Premier League appearances, the 18-year-old and 20-year-old are not yet back in team training after suffering season-ending injuries last time out. While the Spaniard is more likely to be part of Jurgen Klopp’s first team this season, it’s clear Liverpool need more than just an inexperienced youngster.

Having fielded Trent Alexander-Arnold and Curtis Jones out of position as the Reds’ holding midfielder so far in pre-season, Klopp again admitted that Liverpool are looking to strengthen further in their engine-room this summer when speaking at his latest press conference.

READ MORE: Romeo Lavia and Andre latest as Liverpool midfield search takes new twist

READ MORE: Liverpool transfer business is far from over after big Jurgen Klopp admission

“It's no secret that we're still looking for new players to join us,” the German told reporters on Tuesday. “That's one thing but the other thing is using what you have.

"A proven number six is not available in this moment. Do we make excuses? No, then we would have a problem. Over a season a lot of things can happen.”

Liverpool are looking to address such issues of course, having placed two bids for Southampton’s Romeo Lavia. With the first worth up to £38m already rejected, a second improved offer totalling £41m was mooted on Tuesday before befalling the same fate - the day after Fabinho's Reds exit was officially confirmed.

Whether Liverpool are successful in their efforts to sign the Belgium international remains to be seen. But it’s clear they are racing against the clock to complete such a transfer, be it for Lavia or an alternative target, before their season officially gets underway at Stamford Bridge.

Regardless, the situation they find themselves in is far from ideal. Either they start the season without a natural number six and with players playing out of position, or they have to unleash an entirely new midfield, featuring new signings Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai, despite minimal experience playing together.

Of course, if not for Saudi interest, the Reds would not be in such a predicament. Klopp has already admitted that he was surprised that Henderson asked to leave the club, while, despite his poor season last year, Fabinho was expected to remain first choice for Liverpool heading into the new season.

While Lavia had been identified as a potential long-term successor for the Brazilian, the Reds were still put off by Southampton’s £50m asking price and weren’t prioritising such a transfer before their high-profile midfield exits. If they were to make such a move, the teenager was initially lined up as a team-mate for Fabinho rather than like-for-like replacement.

Evidently, it’s a curious juxtaposition when it comes to assessing the 29-year-old's exit and the void he leaves behind. On one hand, Fabinho was the only one of Liverpool’s most senior midfielders to still actually be considered a starter. But despite that, he was still always the one most prone to being sold, with there no escaping the fact that evidence last year did suggest he was past his best, while a £40m bid from Al-Ittihad was always far too substantial to turn down.

Eyebrows would have been raised further had the Reds snubbed such a lucrative deal for a declining player, in comparison to their current reality of being left short after deciding to cash in.

And while Klopp has admitted Liverpool will miss the departing Fabinho he has insisted that the Reds have to look forward when explaining the club’s decision to sell - despite it leaving them without a holding midfielder on the eve of the new season.

“Of course we wish him all the best,” Klopp told the club website when paying tribute to Fabinho. "Fab was for so long the insurance we had more or less in midfield.

“He always gave us the freedom to play all the fancy stuff. He was involved in that from time to time as well but loved to be the hoover for the team, loved to do all the dirty work for the team.

"Together with the centre-halves, when both full-backs were flying right and left, all the strikers, all the midfielders somewhere and then just Fab and the two centre-halves when it looked, 'Oh okay, if we lose the ball, there's still a few players at least who can sort that.' And he was massive.

"So yeah, we will miss him, definitely. But again, it's like it is. Life is about changes – that's always – and you obviously have to adapt to them. If you don't do that, if you stick in the past, something will hold you back – and I'm not that person…

“Yes, we will miss Fab – but Fab will be fine, we will be fine and we always will be thankful to each other. That's, for me, very important in life.”

Liverpool will be fine, in the long run at least, without Fabinho, of course. No-one can fault their decision to sell in such circumstances, with it clear what they will hope to see from his would-be replacement.

But until such a player officially signs, they are stuck in this uncomfortable limbo as the start of the new season comes closer and closer into sight. The longer such a process takes, the more scrutiny they will face. And amid suggestions of a marginally improved offer for Lavia still being well below Southampton's asking price, they are certainly not helping themselves.

Sure, club bosses might not believe the Belgian to be worth £50m. But if the 19-year-old really is the player they want to replace Fabinho, they achieve nothing by navigating a drawn-out saga, having being lauded for avoiding such a scenario when signing both Mac Allister and Szoboszlai, with minimal movement when already working against the clock.

The Reds have backed themselves into a corner. And with negotiations with Southampton still ongoing as pre-season nears its end, they are in desperate need of finding a way out.