At EOTK, we think Nabil Fekir is perhaps the perfect summer replacement for Coutinho.
He’s 24, the perfect age, plays for a club in Lyon who sell their best players, and more importantly, is exceptional.
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We’re doing just fine without our former Brazilian of course, but the squad does visibly lack a central playmaker, although Sadio Mane is doing a good recent impression of one.
Long-term though, we need another.
Fekir’s agent Jean-Pierre Bernes has insisted the Frenchman is happy in Ligue 1, but has suggested that eventually his client will need to leave for an elite club, which under Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool are again becoming.
“First and foremost, we would respect Lyon. We do not want to leave after a big showdown. Nabil is at a big French club, if not the biggest,” he said, reported in Goal.
“We know very well that, at some point, we may be able to ask questions about a move. The decision will be taken with intelligence, as professionals, and especially in the interests of all parties.
“When you leave the club that trained you, to whom we owe everything, you leave in good conditions – if we have to leave.
“Nabil has the personal goal of being part of a top 10 European club. He has that potential. But a career is built little by little.
“If he has not played at a top 10 European club, that does not mean he has not done well in his career or that he will be unhappy. At Lyon, he is very happy, he loves the city, it’s his club. He is not in a drastic situation.”
The beauty of Fekir is not only in terms of his end product (he’s scored 21 goals and registered seven assists in all competitions this season), but positionally.
He can play as a traditional no.10, or further back as a more creative midfielder; the exact role Coutinho was used in during the first-half of this season – a roaming, free no.8, with the licence to get forward or find pockets of space centrally.
Fekir would not only provide a fantastic option in this role, but also as an alternative for any of the front-three, who while brilliant, have little backing them up on Klopp’s bench right now – with Danny Ings and Dominic Solanke yet to score this term.
Fekir, Napoli’s Jorginho, Rb Leipzig’s Naby Keita and Tottenham’s Toby Alderweireld would complete our dream summer in the market.