The Reds were ready to pay his £51m buyout clause before the Spain international opted to stay with his boyhood club in August. Speaking with ex-Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand on TNT Sports, the Dutch head coach revealed that his desire to bring in Zubimendi is no secret.
"The (No.6 roles) are important to me, but they are especially important for our attackers. We feel we have attackers that are pretty special - the front three - and we've got five or six of them.
"So the only thing we have to make sure is that these players come into promising positions having the ball a lot. Therefore you need two sixes who can bring the ball to them. With Macca (Alexis Mac Allister) and Ryan, we have two players who can bring the ball to the likes of Mo Salah, to Cody Gakpo, to Darwin Nunez, to Diogo Jota.
"And we have chosen to bring in two players who were maybe a bit more attacking-minded in the past. Macca played a lot of times as a No.10 for Brighton, Ryan played more as an attacking midfielder but he is comfortable on the ball.
"I even think the player we wanted to bring in (Zubimendi) - I think that’s pretty much out in the open now - he was also a player who was really comfortable. He’s still a player who could bring the ball from the last line to our forwards.”