I think it would surprise most people to know that we have more CM options now than we did in the 18/19 and 19/20 seasons. Wijnaldum was effectively replaced by Thiago last season with a lot of speculation that Wijnaldum was going to go last summer - we chose last season to have an extra midfielder, instead of another CB. I think a big part of the reason why people want us to sign another midfielder (myself included) is the madness of last season, when all our CB's picked up huge injuries, forcing Fab and Hendo to play CB a lot, both of these + Thiago also ended up missing 2+ months of the season with injury themselves. You'd like to think something like that can't happen again - it's certainly the only time in my lifetime that I can remember an injury situation like that, at Liverpool at least.
Regardless of the paranoia of last season repeating itself, there's still an argument for signing another midfielder but I'm not sure it's the end of the world if we don't. In an ideal world you'd like to bring somebody in as a long term successor to Hendo, who will move into the Milner squad role in coming seasons but it's a numbers issue for us right now. We have 7 CM's + Elliott as another option right now, you cannot sign an 8th. With Shaq & Minamino still on the books it's not as if you can say there will be x amount games for Keita, Jones, Elliott & Ox in more advanced roles.
Anyway, it's being reported that Lyon have made an approach for Shaqiri (which would explain his absense in our friendly today) however there's a bit of a gap between valuations with Lyon wanting to pay £5-7m and us wanting £12m. Hopefully something is agreed there as that will make room for another arrival, whether in attack or midfield.
Inevitable really, we aren't going anywhere anytime soon.