Liverpool reportedly want the two most valuable players outside the top five leagues. The Reds have plans to rebuild.
This season has shown Liverpool’s need for investment in 2023 and there are calls from all quarters to inject something different into the squad. The Reds need younger players and fresh ideas.
Liverpool reportedly want the two most valuable players outside the top five leagues. The Reds have plans to rebuild.
This season has shown Liverpool’s need for investment in 2023 and there are calls from all quarters to inject something different into the squad. The Reds need younger players and fresh ideas.
There are links galore, as you’d expect. Players all over Europe are supposedly in Liverpool’s sights and that doesn’t necessarily mean the biggest leagues.
For instance, Liverpool apparently want to sign Enzo Fernández and Cody Gakpo. The former is a player starring with Benfica after joining them at the start of 2022. Gakpo is the best player in the Eredivisie, having won Footballer of the Year with PSV last season.
The pair are standout players and, per CIES Football Observatory, they’re the two most valuable players outside of the top five leagues. That’s outside of the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1.
Fernández, they say, would be worth around £52m. Gakpo is marginally cheaper at £50m.
Liverpool target outside of the top five leagues
This isn’t anything particularly new for Liverpool, of course. While the bulk of their signings under Jurgen Klopp have come from the top leagues, they brought in two players from Portugal this year.
Luis Díaz and Darwin Nunez have been fantastic, too – perhaps working as inspiration to explore those leagues more.
Record link Liverpool with Fernández. We think he’s a brilliant talent and a player who could be a long-term fixture in midfield. While Jude Bellingham would be the ultimate midfield signing, we’d perhaps have the Argentine as no.2.
Gakpo isn’t such a clear-cut option. He’s a fantastic player with 12 assists and nine goals in 14 Eredivisie appearnces this season. You don’t easily find that kind of production.
He does primarily play from the left, however, and that doesn’t give him an obvious place in Liverpool’s side. We did love what he did in the World Cup against Senegal, though, as he showed brilliant versatility. Perhaps Klopp can use him all over the place.
That might explain why Pep Lijnders is reportedly so eager to sign him, per ESPN.
The pair may be expensive, then, but Liverpool can’t really go wrong with either. 2023 promises to be very interesting.
