There were quite a few gems for taking at the beginning of the transfer window, unfortunately most of the young, talented future stars have been taken.
1. Alfred Finnbogason, 25, Real Sociedad
Real upgraded from Griezmann when they picked up the Icelandic striker from SC Heerenveen. He lead all scorers in the Eredivisie last season with 29 goals and also added 10 assists from 57 chances created. The season before he scored 24 times. He doesn't have all the physical attributes to out-muscle or speed past his opponents and relies on positional instinct and clinical finishing to score.
2. Dušan Tadić, 25, Southampton
Another Eredivisie product, Tadić lead the Dutch league in assists with 14 and chances created with 133. He also scored 16 goals. Southampton got him for £11m, considerably less for what we paid for the player he replaced. I wrote about him here.
3. Yann M'Vila, 24, Inter Milan
One of the best defensive midfielder prospects under the age of 25 in Europe, M'Vila has found himself on loan in Italy for the next year. He'll probably use that time to impress a future suitor and there will be aplenty. His physical prowess, passing ability, and defensive instincts allow him to dominate matches in Serie A, especially considering he is not the fastest of players. He also has an eye for attack, in his last season with Rennes, the 2012-13 season, he created 43 chances and posted an impressive 7.7 successful long balls per 90 at a 67.7% rate.
4. Kelechi Iheanacho, 17, Man City
If you watched Liverpool's preseason 'victory' over Man City at Yankee Stadium July 30, you may have noticed Iheanacho, He the only City player to convert a penalty. Iheanacho introduced himself to the world at U17 World Cup, where he put in a performance for the ages. He scored 6 goals and assisted on 5 more, a 1.77 goal created per 90 average might I add, to lead Nigeria to the title and winning the Golden Ball in the process. He added the 2013 CAF Most Promising Player of the Year award to his cabinet as well.
5. Álvaro Morata, 21, Juventus
Morata's abilities and potential have been well-documented elsewhere and though I think he'll be a goal-scoring machine at the Turin club, don't expect much else. Does it matter though? The former Real Madrid starlet has Golden Boot potential, last season he averaged a goal every 90 minutes played and his above-Serie A-average pace should lead him to a very fruitful Juventus career. His physical attributes alone would leave one to believe he may one day be successful in the Prem as well.
Monday, August 4, 2014
The five signings Liverpool missed out on this year
Labels:
Finnabogason,
Iheanacho,
Inter Milan,
Juventus,
LFC,
Liverpool,
M'Vila,
Man City,
Morata,
Real Sociedad,
Southampton,
Tadic,
Transfer
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Popular Posts
-
It's getting old. We are not good enough to challenge for even a Champions league spot and that's becoming more apparent by the mat...
-
For the past few days I've been mulling over data from the obscure to the obvious for a number of reasons. I really want to get an idea...
-
As I sat around with some friends this past Sunday watching some NFL and patiently awaiting the US-Brazil friendly in Chicago, I got to thin...
-
Like clockwork, the problems plaguing our side once again reared their ugly heads. We couldn't score despite plenty of intrusions into ...
-
Well, it looks like our old haunt of not being able to finish has returned. Kuyt couldn't kick the ball into the stands if he wanted to...
-
Let's take a look at some key statistics from last season: (league rank in parenthesis) LFC MCFC ...
-
Three of our on-loan kids have a good chance of seeing action today as their respective clubs are in action for the Johnstone Paint Trophy. ...
-
Nathaniel Clyne gets no respect. The 23-year-old right back put up some solid attacking numbers last season and was more of a catalyst in t...
-
How awesome would it be if we drew Cardiff City at Anfield tomorrow when they do the Carling Cup draw? God would get an improbable return t...
-
Here we go again with one of those matches where everything is on the line. The bad news is we still won't have Agger and Alonso, the g...
No comments:
Post a Comment