Liverpool-target Keisuke Honda has scored seven goals for CSKA Moscow this season. REUTERS

Liverpool face a battle to sign reputed long-term target Keisuke Honda after the CSKA Moscow coach warned the midfielder was unlikely to be sold in the January transfer window.

Honda has been heavily linked with a move abroad in the last 12 months, with CSKA forced to slap a €13m price tag on his services to ward off potential interest from Liverpool.

Liverpool have been monitoring the Japan international's progress for a number of months, and while Honda's agent recently told the International Business Times UK that a move to Anfield in January is doubtful, CSKA coach Leonid Slutsky confirmed the playmaker is definitely going nowhere as he continues his recovery from knee surgery.

"The boy is focused in making a full recovery from his injury. I can assure you that he will be here with us. It is not in our plans to sell him at this stage," Slutsky is quoted on talkSPORT. 

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Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish has admitted that he is on the lookout for additional players this January, as the Scotsman looks to bolster his side's goal threat as they push for a top four finish.

In the wake of Luis Suarez's eight-game ban, and with Andy Carroll, Dirk Kuyt, Craig Bellamy and Stewart Downing having managed just six goals between them all season, Dalglish has hinted he will monitor a number of players in the coming weeks.

"We have the option to add if we want to, but we also have another option that we don't have to," Dalglish said in December. "We don't speculate on anybody - either our own players or somebody else's players."

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