With Jarell Quansah now at Bayer Leverkusen, Liverpool are keen to sign another centre-back this summer, so we spoke to an expert on the most likely candidate, Marc Guehi.
Having impressed as a consistent starter for Crystal Palace since 2021, Guehi officially became club captain last summer but is now heading into the final year of his contract.
At the moment, Palace are holding out for well above what Liverpool are willing to pay. The most recent report from the Guardian‘s Andy Hunter claimed the asking price is approaching £65 million.
While the Reds won’t submit to that price, as the summer goes on, Palace could face increasing pressure to sell, and the potential acquisition of a 25-year-old England international has Liverpool fans excited.
Here, we spoke to David Matthews, a Crystal Palace supporter and Championship club academy coach, (@DavidMatthews6 on X) about Guehi and whether he is right for Arne Slot‘s side.
Were you surprised to hear of Liverpool’s interest?
No, not really. I think he’s probably got to the point now in his Palace career when he needs to make that next step, which would naturally be competing for a club in the Champions League.
I think Palace fans feel that last summer, the links to Newcastle and Tottenham were probably a bit below where he should be playing.
He needs to be playing consistently for not just a team competing for honours, but also one playing at the highest level of European football.
And I think he needs to make that step up now, especially with the World Cup less than 12 months away.
Do Crystal Palace need to sell Marc Guehi this summer?
A lot of Palace fans would say let’s just keep him for another 12 months and then lose him on a free, but from a business perspective, it doesn’t really fit the model that we’re trying to establish at the club.
Our whole model is based on buying young, hungry players from the Championship – although Guehi came from Chelsea, he had just spent a year on loan at Swansea – and then selling them for profit.
And it wouldn’t really fit the model if we let a player of his calibre leave on a free.
We’ve got to accept now that it’s either we get a reduced fee which could be in that £35m-£40 million range. I think that’s what the club are pushing for, even higher, but I think we’ve got to be realistic.
He’s got 12 months left on his deal and, for me, it makes no sense to let that contract run down when he’s shown very little or no interest in extending.
Trying to replace a player of his calibre is going to cost a substantial amount of money. So, for me, we have to sell him this summer.
What are Marc Guehi’s key strengths?
In terms of Guehi’s main strengths, firstly his composure and his confidence in his defending; he very rarely gets rattled in situations when he’s under pressure.
He’s an elite one vs. one defender on the ground. Ground duels, in terms of the percentages he wins most games, are normally in the high 80s or 90s so he very rarely loses his ground duels.
And, for me, the biggest one is probably his organisational leadership skills, as well as his understanding of positioning – he very rarely gets exposed or caught out of position.
His leadership skills for someone who is only just 25 is quite impressive.
Does Marc Guehi have any particular weaknesses?
I think his poor aerial duel rate is a problem.
I was thinking back to moments this year when he was exposed and the one that really came back to my mind was Erling Haaland’s first goal in the 2-2 draw against Man City at Selhurst Park, when Haaland peeled off to Guehi’s side on the left and clearly got the leap on him, and Guehi couldn’t compete.
He doesn’t get exposed in that area too much, but it’s certainly not his strength in terms of winning those aerial duels.
It’s probably not going to be an area that gets better considering he’s not going to get any taller. He manages to get by and it hasn’t happened a lot, but there have been a couple of instances.
Is Marc Guehi comfortable playing as a right-sided centre-back?
The advantage is that he is a right-footed centre-back but he is very comfortable playing off the left-hand side.
For Palace he has very rarely, if any time, played on the right, predominantly being the left side of a two or, since Oliver Glasner’s come in, the left side of a three.
But I don’t see it being too much of a challenge in terms of slotting over to the right-hand side because he’d be playing off his comfortable foot.
The only thing that would be slightly different is in terms of the angles he has to defend in his one vs. ones. They would be slightly different because he’d be dealing with players coming in off the left and not off the right.
But I don’t see that being too much of a challenge.
In terms of his playing style, with whom would you compare Marc Guehi?
In terms of the modern game, if we take away the height issue, there is a real similarity with William Saliba at Arsenal in terms of being very comfortable in possession, very rarely giving the ball away, and finding those progressive passes into the next third of the pitch.
He is strong in one vs. ones and he very rarely gets beaten, especially on the ground, and his reading and understanding of the game is superb.
I was thinking back to really strong, proven Premier League centre-backs of years gone by and the one that does probably stick to mind is William Gallas.
Gallas was 6ft as well. He could play on the left side and the right and he could also cover at full-back. Although I don’t think Guehi could do much of a job out there at full-back, there are similarities in terms of their physical stature.
What is Marc Guehi like as a person off the pitch?
From everything that we’ve heard as a fanbase about him as a person away from the pitch, no one’s got a bad word to say about him.
He’s strong in his faith in terms of his beliefs, he comes from quite a religious family. I think he’s the type of person who just represents the community and represents the club really well. You never hear of him doing things that would be of concern.
He took the captaincy at a young age from Joel Word and I think he’s the kind of player you can be confident signing not having to worry about having to deal with any off-the-field issues.
Even the current situation that we’re in, he’s not asking to move but obviously, he’s open to the opportunity if he can get a move this summer. But I don’t think he’s the kind of player that’s going to be kicking the door down and kicking up a stink if the move didn’t materialise.
Finally, how high is Marc Guehi’s ceiling?
If I were a Liverpool fan, I’d see him as the long, long-term replacement for Virgil van Dijk.
With Guehi’s age, he’s got a good 10 years in him so I think his ceiling would be to be that person who takes the reins off Van Dijk in terms of being your starting level centre-back, whether it’s on the left or right side, and dare I say it, maybe a future club captain.
He’s already pretty much established himself within the England team so I think his ceiling is pretty high and, providing he continues to show the level of improvement he has and the consistency in his performances, he’s a starting-level Champions League defender and he will be for the next five or 10 years.
I don’t think there’s too much to worry about if you do manage to secure his signature.
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