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da fezbet： According to TEAMtalk, Barcelona are prepared to let Frenchman Ousmane Dembele join Liverpool as long as they pay the initial £96.8m they parted with in 2017 for his services. Things have not gone to plan for the former Borussia Dortmund man in La Liga, with injuries halting his progress and attitude problems leading him into trouble with the club’s hierarchy.
However, despite these issues, Dembele is a top-class footballer. Here are two reasons why Liverpool should take a gamble and bring the troubled winger in this summer…
Jurgen Klopp’s track record
Because Dembele’s name has long been mentioned amongst the most promising footballers on the planet, it is easy to forget he is just 22 years old and has just four full seasons of professional football under his belt. He has his whole career ahead of him, and has shown the potential to become a world star- his numbers from his time at Dortmund, racking up 10 goals and 22 assists in 50 appearances, prove that.
Jurgen Klopp has a track record of turning players into fully-fledged stars. At Liverpool, Trent Alexander-Arnold is the best example, and at Dortmund Mario Gotze, Mats Hummels, Neven Subotic and Christian Pulisic all broke through under his tutelage. Dembele, it seems, needs the right manager to become a polished rather than rough diamond, and Klopp could be the man to do just that.
Klopp’s traditional style of play suits Dembele
Barcelona’s philosophy is based around possession play and breaking their opponents down over time. A lot of their play goes through Lionel Messi, with other attacking players sometimes forced to remain on the periphery.
Whilst Dembele has not exactly disappointed in Spain, scoring 18 goals and providing 17 assists, the Barca style does not suit his attributes. With his pace and ability to beat a man, he is best suited to swift counter-attacking football.
This is exactly the kind of football Liverpool produced during the 2017/18 season. Although last term was overall a much more measured approach because teams sat deep against them, they still scored the third-most counter-attacking goals of any Premier League side and there’s a clear benefit to retaining that manner of getting forward even if it’s not always the primary game-plan.
Dembele would be the perfect signing to ensure Klopp still has that option when needed, which will most likely be in the bigger games. Liverpool will need to win plenty of those next season if they want to lift the Premier League title.