Liverpool Transfer Rumours: Reds Resorting to Desperate Measures After Injuries

At this point, Liverpool needs all the help it can get on the back end.

That has the Reds preparing a bid of £6 million for Sporting Lisbon's Tiago Ilori and a bid of £10 million for Ajax Amsterdam's Toby Alderweireld, according to Jamie Sanderson of the Metro.

Illori has reportedly received some interest during the transfer window in Spain, but Liverpool may have the upper hand considering the lure of playing in the Premier League.

Alderweireld has expressed his desire to play for Liverpool, per Sanderson. In fact, he basically shot down purported front-runner Newscastle in April, while glowing about the Reds.

The 24-year-old Belgian said, via Sanderson's report: "Usually I do not want to play for an English club that’s in mid-table. But, unlike Newcastle, Liverpool meet my [other] criteria."

Liverpool has gone 2-0 so far this season in the EPL, with victories over Stoke and Aston Villa. But the club is without defenders Martin Skrtel and Sebastian Coates and just lost Kolo Toure to a groin injury this week. The club currently has a shortage of defenders and needs stopgaps before its core members can return to the pitch.

It's a rough spot for the Reds, who are trying to improve upon a seventh-place finish in the EPL last season. Last season's Premier League champion, Manchester United, outscored the Reds on the table by 28 points. Liverpool was rather balanced that year, scoring the fourth-most goals in the league and allowing the fifth-fewest goals, but the club wasn't dominant enough on either end to make a significant impact.

Losing Skrtel and Coates, and then Toure, is undoubtedly a tough pill for Liverpool to swallow, but adding some talented youngsters in Illori and Alderweireld to at least ease the blow in the meantime is not a bad idea, especially considering they appear to be relatively cheap options.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. That describes the Reds' situation right now.