The January transfer window is a time when football takes it’s (sort of) sensible hat off and descends into the mud for a wild old time of rumours and hearsay. Indeed, your average day through the first month of any given year now consists of a player’s name being mentioned (usually from an outlet abroad) before being splashed across newspapers and websites only for it all to get shot down a coupe of hours later.And that was the case this week with Liverpool and Sporting CP’s William Carvalho. The midfielder, as Sport Witness (via A Bola) discuss here, was linked before the whole saga was brought crashing down by the Liverpool Echo’s club correspondent James Pearce:
However, the web has got even thicker with Tancredi Palmeri suggesting that talks are rumbling on:
It’s hard to work out what is actually going on then, but we think he would be a great addition for Liverpool, and here are THREE reasons why…
£25.6m is not mad money
What is any player’s value in the modern game? At the risk of sounding like a footballing Luddite, the cash in the beautiful game has swelled to another level over the course of the past year or so, with the Premier League’s mega TV deal and the Chinese Super League flooding the market with new money, which clubs, understandably, are splashing willingly.
Indeed, the summer saw a significant 13 English top tier teams break their transfer records and the fact that Crystal Palace, for example, can have a £30m forward in Christian Benteke shows the spread of the pound.
Moving on to Carvalho, A Bola (below) claim that Sporting would be willing to sell their holding midfield star as long as a potential suitor offers at least €30m (£25.6m).
Such a sum is far from ‘crazy’ for a player who is just 24-years-old and has won major honours at club and international level. Add into the mix that Liverpool made a profit on transfers over the summer and have since added more cash to their coffers by offloading Tiago Ilori in the current window, and it becomes clear that they have the financial muscle to consider a deal for the mooted fee as almost a justifiable mid-season ‘bargain’.
Genuine holding midfielder
Klopp’s 4-3-3 system this season has, largely, operated without an orthodox holding midfield player, with Jordan Henderson very much tasked with starting the play rather than disrupting. While this has worked on the whole, there have been occasions when Liverpool have missed a bit of grit in the middle of the pitch to get a hold of a game – which is where Carvalho comes into play.
Far from being a ‘kick ‘em up in the air’ enforcer like Nigel de Jong, the Portuguese ace is a combination of destruction and creation. Although that means Klopp may have to compromise in terms of funnelling the ball forward with the pace he seemingly likes, moments like Tom Carroll charging into the Reds penalty area en route to Gylfi Sigurdsson’s winner in the 2-3 loss to Swansea on the weekend may be a less frequent site with Carvalho in the middle alongside Henderson and Adam Lallana or Georginio Wijnaldum.
Alongside this, should Liverpool qualify for the Champions League or Europa League for 2017/18, which looks likely, they will need a deeper squad and players capable of carrying out certain performances in certain matches – for example, going away to Real Madrid and not shipping goals.
Impressive 2016/17 season so far
As our infographic shows, Carvalho has been effective this season in a Sporting team that has, largely, struggled in the Primeira Liga – they sit fourth behind Benfica, Porto and Braga. Maintaining a passing success rate of 88% while creating eight chances from a deep role shows that he has the technicality to function in a Klopp team, while his aerial duels won (24), tackles (21) and 31 interceptions illustrate his work in the central and back thirds of the pitch.
Of course, these stats mean little in isolation, so above are Carvalho’s numbers vs. Liverpool’s current central/holding midfield options (via Squawka). The EURO 2016 champion matches his counterparts in most areas and excels in terms of interceptions, while his overall rating is only just short of Henderson’s, which is no mean feat considering the Kop skipper has been lauded for his showings this term.