Kop Flop Poulsen To Exit Liverpool In Jan

Liverpool are ready to ditch Christian Poulsen just months after he signed for the club, Goal.com UK can reveal. The Danish midfielder has failed to impress since his £4.5 million summer move from Juventus and could be on his way out of Anfield as soon as January. New director of football strategy Damien Comolli does not believe Poulsen has a future at Liverpool and wants to bring in a younger replacement with more potential. It is believed manager Roy Hodgson would back the sale of the former Sevilla star but only if an upgrade can be brought in as he is concerned by the small size of his squad. Poulsen, 30, has lost his place in the Reds starting line-up over the last few weeks after a series of substandard performances at the start of the season. He has seen his opportunities further restricted by the form of fellow central midfielders Lucas and Raul Meireles. Comolli, the former sporting director at Tottenham, believes Poulsen is a symptom of the old regime at Anfield in which older players with limited ability were signed instead of potential stars. Liverpool are yet to receive any interest in the Denmark international but expect to recoup most of their £4.5m outlay should he leave Anfield. Poulsen was signed as a replacement for Javier Mascherano in central midfield following the Argentina captain's £21m summer switch to Barcelona. The feeling at Anfield is that he was signed as a 'stop gap' when the club lacked the finances to invest heavily in a genuine replacement for Mascherano. Poulsen was signed by Hodgson during the summer along with Joe Cole, Paul Konchesky, Milan Jovanovic and Raul Meireles. But he has been the least impressive of the new recruits and drew criticism from Liverpool fans for poor defensive positioning and wayward passing during the club's dreadful start to the season. Poulsen's last Premier League start came over a month ago in the 2-1 home defeat to Blackpool.