Liverpool weighing up late move for £50m “beast”

Liverpool is abuzz with Arne Slot‘s side’s imminent Premier League clash against Brentford, who will give Anfield a first taste of action for the season, but sporting director Richard Hughes will have most of his attention on the week ahead in the market.

The 2024 summer transfer window has entered its final week, and Liverpool remain the only outfit across Europe’s top seven leagues to have refrained some strengthening their first team.

Still, Fabrizio Romano has hinted that the Reds could be set to bring in a new signing or two before the end of the month, with Slot inheriting an abundantly talented squad fromJurgen Klopp but one that fell by the wayside toward the end of the 2023/24 campaign and could use some fresh life.

Should Joe Gomez be sold, Liverpool will need a new defender, with the 27-year-old attracting interest from a host of Premier League outfits and being valued at £45m by his club. Sepp van den Berg has already completed a £25m transfer to Brentford and the perfect new arrival might just be in the pipeline.

Liverpool transfer news

As per Football Insider, Liverpool are monitoring Bayer Leverkusen’s Piero Hincapie , with the young centre-back having been on the club’s radar for quite some time.

Hincapie was a core part of the Leverkusen side that completed an invincible domestic campaign last year, winning the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal titles, and would be a significant coup for Slot’s side.

The 22-year-old is understood to have a £50m price tag but Liverpool’s lack of activity throughout the summer months suggests that the funds are available to complete such a deal, with outgoings strengthening Anfield’s financial accord even more.

What Piero Hincapie would bring to Liverpool

FSG’s natural hesitance to launch high-money bids for players that wouldn’t immediately walk into the first team is a well-known fact on Merseyside, but Hincapie could prove to be an exception to that rule.

While he’s not the finished product and would perhaps not displace Ibrahima Konate or Jarell Quansah as captain Virgil van Dijk’s undisputed, nailed-on partner in central defence, there’s enough there to speak of the importance of getting the deal done.

As you can see, he has much to learn before he is playing with the kind of polished, world-class swagger of Van Dijk, but he still impressed with his ball-playing quality and of course, featured in a defence that concluded the term without tasting defeat – and winning the league trophy besides.

Also, as per FBref , the Ecuadorian already ranks among the top 9% of centre-backs across Europe’s top five leagues over the past year for assists, the top 14% for shot-creating actions, the top 8% for passes attempted, the top 14% for progressive passes, the top 1% for progressive carries and the top 14% for tackles made per 90.

He has the properties that Slot admires, capable of playing through the lines and driving forward himself to instigate attacking sequences and add to the central overload that the Dutch tactician loves to charge his swift-passing, control-focused brand of football.

Tipped to become “one of the world’s best centre-backs ” by journalist and U23 scout Antonio Mango – who also dubbed him an “absolute beast” – Hincapie would be a wonderful addition to the team, and would actually be the perfect replacement for Gomez.

Joe Gomez upgrade

Bayer Leverkusen have picked up where they left off under Xabi Alonso, winning the DFL Supercup before scoring a last-gasp winner in their gripping Bundesliga opener against Borussia Monchengladbach on Friday night.

Hincapie has already proven his qualities and continual growth toward the upper end of Europe’s defensive titans, winning 80% of his duels last time out.

Gomez offers a defensive versatility that is astounding in its scope, having featured across the backline under Klopp last year, but this is a new era and Hincapie offers greater distribution, as well as carrying some of the talents that Gomez offers too.

Hincapie, moreover, is a competent left-back, impressing when moonlighting down the flank in the past. Liverpool have Trent Alexander-Arnold and his electric understudy Conor Bradley on the other side of the backline, so it’s hard to imagine that Gomez would receive too much game time in his natural position.

The England international also won only 48% of his ground duels in the Premier League last season. While Gomez showcased many redeeming qualities after a wretched 2022/23 campaign, earning a Three Lions recall and leading writer Joel Rabinowitz to praise his “renaissance ”, he’s not irreplaceable.

Hincapie’s 5.14 progressive passes per 90 over the past 12 months also stands above Gomez’s 4.88 per 90 , emphasising further suitability within the new way of life at Liverpool.

Gomez is also the club’s longest-serving player after joining from Charlton Athletic for £3m as a teenager in 2015, so perhaps the time is right to part ways and issue in some new blood.

Hincapie is a talented player with so much potential yet to be realised, and given that he offers the kind of style that enhance Slot’s system, it seems like a bit of a no-brainer, with Liverpool in need of at least one signing to ensure that the new era goes off without a hitch.

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