The news that Jordan Henderson and Fabinho could both depart Liverpool this summer sent shockwaves across the Reds fanbase.
One can only imagine how the club’s recruitment team will have taken the news with less than a month to go until the first clash of the Premier League season.
Steve Kay of Football Transfers now reports, however, that the Merseysiders are interested in signing Bayern Munich’s Leon Goretzka to help fill the void, with it alleged that the Bavarians may be open to a sale.
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With a reported price tag of £34.3m, the versatile midfielder – capable of playing as a No.6, No.8 and No.10 – could help us kill two birds with one stone providing cover for both our potential departees.
It’s worth emphasising, of course, that the German international is far from being a defensive midfield specialist, as is the case with our Brazilian No.3, which could leave us with a serious dilemma still to solve dependent on how we set up for the upcoming campaign.
That’s not to suggest in any way that Goretzka is defensively deficient; a foray into the stats on FBref indicates the opposite in fact, with the 28-year-old proving to be an aerially dominant option in the middle of the park by ranking in the 91st percentile for aerials won compared to his peers.
The Bayern man proves to be more than proficient on the flip side of the coin too, with his efforts over the last calendar year placing him in the 99th percentile and 86th percentile for non-penalty xG and xAG respectively.
Whether that earmarks him as a more ideal option to compete with Dominik Szoboszlai and Harvey Elliott for minutes in the right central midfield role remains to be seen, though Jurgen Klopp has never been one to shy away from a player who brings genuine versatility to the squad.