Nico Schlotterbeck is Liverpool's BIGGEST transfer yet | OneFootball

Liverpool reportedly want to sign Nico Schlotterbeck. The defender would be their biggest - and most important - transfer yet.

Liverpool made some truly remarkable signings in 2025. They twice broke their transfer record, for one thing, signing Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak as their first £100m+ transfers.

Those are now the two biggest deals in Liverpool's history. Financially, anyway.

But they're now linked with another deal that we think will surpass them. Not in terms of fee but in terms of how important it is for Liverpool to get it done.

That's a deal for Nico Schlotterbeck at Borussia Dortmund. The centre-back is out of contract in 2027 and may not sign an extension.

If he doesn't, Dortmund will be under pressure to sell the player. They can't afford to lose arguably their most valuable asset for nothing, after all.

Liverpool are reportedly interested and could even try to get something done in January. We think it's important they do - this would be their biggest signing yet.

Nico Schlotterbeck to Liverpool

Liverpool need a centre-back. They acknowledged that in the summer by trying to sign Marc Guehi, only for that deal to collapse at the last minute.

But there’s absolutely a necessity here and it’s partly down to Ibrahima Konate’s contract. The Frenchman’s deal expires this summer and as things stand, Liverpool will lose him for free.

However, there’s actually an even bigger concern. Konate, as good as he is, can be replaced and Liverpool will have a long list of centre-backs they will move for if he leaves.

Now, that’s not to say that Konate can be easily replaced, nor can he be replaced on the cheap. He’s an elite player and it’ll be very difficult, should he leave.

But elite players come and go. One in a generation players don’t, however, and Liverpool have one of those in Virgil van Dijk.

Van Dijk has been the anchor of the Reds’ defence since arriving in January 2018. That’s actually putting it quite mildly - their entirety of their success since then has been built on his arrival.

That’s the luxury of having such a one-of-a-kind player but the ‘downside’ is that you can’t replace them. Once Van Dijk declines or leaves Liverpool, they will get worse. There’s no way around that as you literally cannot find a player as good as him.

What you can do, though, is try and find the closest thing as we believe that’s Schlotterbeck. The German doesn’t have the same defensive numbers as Van Dijk but they’re relatively close. As close as you could reasonably expect, anyway.

But what Schlotterbeck also brings is ability on the ball. He’s averaged an absolute minimum of five progressive passes per 90 minutes since becoming a first-team regular, which puts him in and around Van Dijk’s numbers.

In fact, the Dortmund star averaged over eight last season - an extraordinary figure that puts him up there with the best in Europe. And it’s this dual aspect of Schlotterbeck that makes him such an incredible Van Dijk successor.

He can get close to his defensive numbers while offering similar passing. It’s incredibly difficult to find someone who can do both at the top level but Liverpool need both if they’re to transition to a post-Van Dijk team.

Get this one wrong and the Reds will take a massive step backwards once the captain slows down. The team would suffer enormously, no matter what level of quality you’ve got up top.

Schlotterbeck offers a sort of continuity to build on that few, if any, can match. Get it done.