Do Liverpool need this 22 year old German forward?

According to German media outlet Bild, Liverpool are ready to place a bid worth up to £90 million to land RB Leipzig striker Timo Werner at Anfield. Even though several other outlets reported the same, James Pearce of Liverpool Echo claimed that there is no such interest from the club in the player.

Whether there is truth in the news or not is something that needs to investigated thoroughly. For now, let’s assume that Bild is indeed right with their information. In that case it has to be discussed if Liverpool need the services of Werner or not.

The 22-year-old, who hails from the German city of Stuttgart, is primarily a right footed centre forward. Werner’s pace and dribbling ability enables him to operate on the either wings as well.

After rising through the ranks of his hometown club VfB Stuttgart, he moved to RB Leipzig in 2016. He has been phenomenal for the Ralph Hasenhuttl-managed side since his arrival.

Werner has scored a total of 32 goals from 49 appearances over the course of last two seasons and is likely to lead the line for the German national team in the World Cup at Russia ahead of the likes of Lars Stindl, Mario Gomez and Sandro Wagner (all of whome are way experienced than the 22-year-old).

This season the youngster has score a total of 18 goals from 37 appearances across all tournaments, scoring at a rate of almost 0.49 goals per game.

Werner’s pace, dribbling, positioning, finishing, ball control, shots and everything have ‘world-class’ written all over them. The player is meant to play for big fishes of the football world. However when it comes to fitting into Jurgen Klopp’s current Liverpool side, there are a few concerns.

The Reds’ current front three of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah are racking goals after goals and do not look like stopping. The departure of the team’s number 10 Philippe Coutinho was expected to dent their form at least a bit, but surprisingly they only got better.

Mohamed Salah has scored 28 goals in the Premier League this season and is set to break the goalscoring record (in 38 matches), with the Egyptian just three goals behind the current record holders Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Suarez and Alan Shearer.

Sadio Mane, who is dubbed to be having a ‘bad season’, is in reality having one of his best seasons of his career. The Senagalese winger has found the back of the net eight times in league and six times in the UEFA Champions League. The former Southampton player also has an impressive assist tally of seven in the league.

Then comes Roberto Firmino, who has proven his status as a proper number nine for Klopp’s side. The 26-year-old’s magnificent goalscoring tally of 22 is likely to earn him a spot in Tite’s Brazilian starting eleven in the World Cup.

With the trio firing all cylinders consistently in a fun manner, no one (of course excpet their opponents) would want any of them to be replaced next season.

Many believe that Firmino is the keystone of Klopp’s current setup and rightfully so. This has led to concerns that what would happen if Firmino becomes unavailable for the team. The same applies for Mane and Salah up to an extent as well.

Out of the three above mentioned players, it is agreed by most that Firmino needs a proper back-up. The hit Liverpool could get if Bobby gets injured or unavailable is massive.

However, even in that case is Werner the ideal candidate? Would the youngster be okay with being subordinate to Firmino, especially when he knows he is capable enough to start for a top club?

The answer is simply no. Buying a prospect like Werner for a huge sum to just be a backup would be a ridiculously ridiculous move.

 

Written by Dakir Thanveer

Follow Dakir on Twitter @ZakWriter

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