Melissa Reddy has likened one rumoured Liverpool transfer target to a player who’s currently at Anfield.
The Sky Sports reporter has claimed that the Reds are looking to bring in two different profiles of midfielder this month, a ‘controller’ to dictate the tempo of a match and a ‘destroyer’ whose game revolves around halting opposition attacks.
Jurgen Klopp’s side are duly targeting Andre Trindade and Romeo Lavia for those respective niches, and the journalist believes LFC already have a player who’s stylistically similar to someone in their current squad.
Reddy said: “We know, as we reported on Sky Sports News as well, that they have made contact with Fluminense over Andre. He fits the other profile of player [Liverpool are seeking]. He is more of a controller. He profiles very similarly to Thiago.”
The 22-year-old’s club are opposed to a summer exit and would prefer to keep him until at least the winter, with talks ongoing between the respective parties.
When looking at the respective performance figures of Andre and Thiago on FBref, there are indeed some clear similarities between the two from their current or most recent season.
They have the same number of tackles (24), interceptions (21) and shots on target (one) and near-identical success rates for short (95.3% to 92.9%, Andre first) and long passes (77.6% to 79.1%) and the overall number of passes attempted (1,063 to 1,097).
With Thiago now 32 and the Fluminense ace a decade younger, the latter could well be a like-for-like replacement once the ex-Barcelona maestro leaves Liverpool, if the Reds can persuade the Brazilian club to sell the player.
You can see Reddy’s comments below (from 1:08), via Sky Sports Premier League on YouTube: