Club of the Serbian 'Harry Potter' is open to offers

Adem Ljajic is talented, no doubt, but is he worth the £10m price tag?  Kind of yes, but ultimately no, let me explain.  Here are his stats from last season:

npgp90	gcp90	ccp90	ap90	ccv
0.28	0.61	1.83	0.28	15.2
pass%	bp%	sacc%	shot%	TTI90
90.9	55.8	52.8	11.3	9.8
gsp90	gap90	gop90	tgop	gopd
1.83	0.83	1	1.24	-0.24

Not bad, but not mind-blowing.  What about the season before, his last with Fiorentina:

npgp90	gcp90	ccp90	ap90	ccv
0.56	1.06	2.44	0.44	18.2
pass%	bp%	sacc%	shot%	TTI90
88.1	59.6	41	13.3	9.5
gsp90	gap90	gop90	tgop	gopd
1.94	1.33	0.61	0.74	-0.13

Overall better, he impressed with his chance created per 90 minutes as well as his chance created value.  His passing slipped in both directions though, having a lower success percentage and a higher back pass rate. In the end, he failed to leave a positive mark upon either season, having negative goals on pitch differences for both campaigns.  He improved in the areas that he can control. but it failed to translate in the areas he could not.

Roma have Miralem Pjanic and recently added Juan Iturbe, so the 22-year-old Serbian has become expendable.  Unfortunately, there is no real reason sign to him.  Yes, the pattern of his career shows that next year will be a bumper crop, but who knows how bad he'll crash the following campaign.  His inconsistency is his biggest fault.

I think it's nice that we are linked to such a talented, young player, but he's just too big of a risk.  Rodgers should only sign players who have proven themselves over a number of years, no matter the age or the league.  If Ljajic is as talented as advertised, he's still at least two years from being a Premier League star.

Is Afonso Alves the answer?

With Peter Crouch's whining arse hopefully on it's way out, Brazilian striker Afonso Alves has been the first name to surface as his replacement come January. You may recall his recent seven goal performance for Dutch side Heerenveen versus Heracles Almelo last Saturday. Though a somewhat impressive feat unless you're playing American Samoa, I am always wary of a player being over-hyped after such a performance.

The only thing I will say about Alves is that he was more deserving of the Golden Boot last year than Totti. I realize that the Eredivisie is not as strong a league as Serie A, but a lot of the AS Roma forward's goals came against lesser opponents while Alves should little disparity in scoring against teams no matter their place on the table. Also Totti got more help from his more formidable side.

With that said, I've never been that impressed with the Brazilian, but I have never really watched that much of him to make a confident assessment as to whether or not he would be the right fit. With our current issues of scoring inefficacy, maybe we need a player that may be lacking flair but has that Ruud Van Nistelrooy sense of netting yawners. Of course ultimately it may come down to availability and price anyhow and I don't see us overpaying for him just to pry Heerenveen's grasp loose.

Anyhow, here's the highlights of his seven goal match: