Liverpool supporters know the transfer-window routine. A weakness appears, rumours start, a £50 million midfielder or defender is immediately identified somewhere in Europe, and everyone spends three weeks watching grainy compilations on YouTube.
But perhaps one of Liverpool’s more interesting solutions is already at Kirkby.
Prince Cisse is a good example. The 18-year-old son of former Liverpool striker Djibril Cisse is now predominantly a centre-back. That sentence becomes much more interesting when you remember that Prince used to be an attacker.
Liverpool have gradually moved him backwards, initially into full-back areas and then into central defence. It wasn’t simply an emergency experiment either. The change has become a genuine part of his development.
In June, Cisse signed his first professional contract with Liverpool after progressing through the club from its pre-Academy system. He had already made his U21 debut against Tottenham in March — and, appropriately for a former attacker, scored with a header.
There is something rather Liverpool-ish about all this.
An attacker who understands attackers
Cisse explained earlier this year that his past as a striker actually helps him defend. When facing forwards, he can anticipate some of what they are thinking because he spent years trying to do exactly the same things himself.
That is valuable.
Modern centre-backs are no longer employed simply to head crosses into Row Z. They need to receive under pressure, carry the ball forward, defend large spaces and sometimes effectively become midfielders during possession.
A player developed further up the pitch may already possess several of those qualities.
Cisse also has pace. Lots of it. He joked in an interview with Liverpool’s official website that his finishing perhaps wasn’t quite at the level of his father, which might explain the move backwards. Apparently, however, he thinks he may actually be quicker than Djibril.
Considering how fast his dad was, that isn’t a boring starting point for a centre-back.
Liverpool can create solutions instead of buying every one
This is where positional conversion becomes interesting beyond one Academy prospect.
Elite football squads are expensive. Very expensive. A club can easily spend £40m, £50m or considerably more filling one specialised position. Developing a footballer capable of covering two or three roles creates a different sort of value.
Liverpool already have youngsters who demonstrate flexibility. Rio Ngumoha, naturally most comfortable attacking from the left, has increasingly gained experience from the right. He played there for England and Liverpool during the summer, showing that development does not always have to mean simply becoming better at your original position. Sometimes it means expanding what that position actually is.
That flexibility is also part of what makes modern football entertaining to analyse. Fans following Liverpool through sites such as TonyBet are no longer simply looking at starting XIs but at how individual players can change roles during a match. One versatile youngster can suddenly give a coach several tactical combinations without requiring another trip into the transfer market.
Conversion isn’t a consolation prize
There was a time when moving a young attacker backwards could almost sound like bad news. Couldn’t score enough goals? Congratulations, you’re a defender now.
That thinking feels increasingly outdated.
Some of football’s most successful positional transformations have produced exceptional players. Gareth Bale famously developed from a left-back into an elite attacker. Joshua Kimmich has moved between right-back and midfield throughout his career. Liverpool themselves enjoyed enormous success turning Roberto Firmino, originally more of an attacking midfielder, into the unusual pressing centre-forward around whom Jürgen Klopp’s attack functioned.
The important thing is identifying transferable qualities.
With Cisse, Liverpool have pace, experience of attacking situations and an understanding of forward movement. Rather than discarding those attributes because he wasn’t destined to become another Cisse striker, the Academy has effectively recycled them.
That’s smart development.
And the early signs are encouraging. Liverpool’s official profile now lists Cisse as a defender, predominantly a centre-back. His first professional contract in June was another indication that the club sees potential in the experiment.
Kirkby can become Liverpool’s tactical laboratory
Academies shouldn’t merely manufacture miniature versions of established first-team players. They have time to experiment in ways senior teams often don’t.
A winger can become a full-back. A No.10 might become a deeper midfielder. An attacker with the right physical and technical qualities might discover that his future is actually at centre-back.
Not every experiment will work, obviously. Football would be suspiciously easy if it did.
But Cisse’s development offers Liverpool an intriguing reminder. The next solution to a first-team problem does not necessarily need a transfer announcement, dramatic airport footage and a giant fee attached.
Sometimes you can simply move a talented teenager 40 metres backwards and discover a completely different footballer.
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