{"id":504182,"date":"2026-03-30T22:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T22:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/504182\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T22:48:12","slug":"liverpool-enter-four-way-battle-for-one-of-the-quickest-defenders-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/504182\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool enter four-way battle for one of the quickest defenders alive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">Liverpool are one of four clubs battling it out for the fastest centre-back in the Premier League, reports claim.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\"><a class=\"anchor_link__6t7IO\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportbible.com\/liverpool\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Reds <\/a>missed out on top centre-back target Marc Guehi in the summer, the deal falling through at the eleventh hour on transfer deadline day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">With 19-year-old defender Giovanni Leoni out for a year after suffering ACL injury in his debut and Ibrahima Konate&#8217;s future still uncertain, Liverpool are desperate to bring in a new central defender.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">According to <a class=\"anchor_link__6t7IO\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.teamtalk.com\/news\/crystal-palace-face-fight-keep-liverpool-centre-back-target-maxence-lacroix\">TEAMTalk, <\/a>Liverpool are looking to bring in Konate&#8217;s compatriot Maxence Lacroix but face stiff competition to secure his signature.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">The Crystal Palace man, Guehi&#8217;s former defensive partner, made his debut for France against Brazil in their 2-1 win at the Gillette Stadium on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">He was then rewarded with his first start in a 3-1 win against Colombia for Didier Deschamps side.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">In contention for the upcoming World Cup in the United States, the former Wolfsburg defender&#8217;s stock is on the rise &#8211; with journalist Graeme Bailey claiming that Liverpool, Chelsea and Aston Villa are the three Premier League sides keen.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Lacroix is of huge importance to Palace. Image: Getty\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"fill\" class=\"article-image_image__XvzgU\" style=\"position:absolute;height:100%;width:100%;left:0;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;color:transparent\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/aHR0cHM6Ly9ldS1pbWFnZXMuY29udGVudHN0YWNrLmNvbS92My9hc3NldHMvYmx0YTkwZDA1YWQ0MWE1NGE3MS9ibHQ0MmQzMzQy.webp\"\/>Lacroix is of huge importance to Palace. Image: Getty<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">However, Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich are also admirers of Lacroix and have been keeping tabs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">Palace have been decimated with recent departures of Eberechi Eze and Guehi, with manager Oliver Glasner also leaving at the end of the season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">Lacroix is another huge asset who the Eagles do not want to lose but they are in a stronger position to fend off interest as he is on a contract until 2029 and there is no release clause in his deal.<\/p>\n<p>Lacroix leads Premier League metric<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">Lacroix has been a mainstay in Palace&#8217;s side, missing just two Premier League games and only failing to complete 90 minutes on one occasion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">He is tidy on the ball and a huge reason why clubs are interested in him is his excellent recovery pace. This season, Lacroix clocked in with a top speed of 35.39 km\/h &#8211; making him the fastest centre-back in the Premier League at present.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text_text__nEn66\">That speed was recorded in a game against Newcastle, with all the players above him either full-backs or forward players.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liverpool are one of four clubs battling it out for the fastest centre-back in the Premier League, reports&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[219,218,708,221,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-504182","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-chelsea","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-liverpool","11":"tag-premier-league","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}