Here is your Liverpool morning digest for Saturday, June 26.
Mohamed Salah could make big profit with £43m signing
With endless new transfer rumours spewing forth daily, it can be difficult to know which ones to take seriously, writes Andrew Beasley.
However, from the perspective of judging if a player has caught Liverpool’s eye, knowing that the club rely heavily upon statistical analysis to unearth gems in the transfer market can help.
It’s rare to look at someone who has been linked with the Reds and not see something in the numbers which looks elite. This doesn’t automatically make a transfer story legitimate, of course, but it does at least hint at the possibility that the rumour might be genuine.
Numerical investigations are even more intriguing when they suggest that multiple players whom the Reds are supposedly interested in appear to be statistically similar.
The player profiles on FBRef, which are powered by Statsbomb data, provide a list of 10 men who tick a lot of the same boxes.
Liverpool have been linked with Lorenzo Pellegrini and Hakan Calhanoglu this summer, and much further back they held an interest in Henrikh Mkhitaryan. All three are in the top eight player matches for Sassuolo’s attacking midfielder, Domenico Berardi.
With 31 goals (albeit nine of them were penalties) and 17 assists in the last two seasons of Serie A football, he certainly looks capable of playing for a bigger club with higher ambitions than mid-table security.
And two years ago, he was quoted as saying he would love to play for the Reds. “Being able to choose, I would play in Liverpool. Changing remains difficult for me, but it no longer frightens me, I would do it,” he said.
Gazzetta dello Sport (translated by Football Italia) claim that Liverpool are monitoring the 26-year-old and might be about to make a bid.
If that turns out to be true, the Reds will have to bide their time for a little longer yet. Berardi is currently representing Italy at Euro 2020, where they negotiated the group stage with three wins and without conceding a goal.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
Liverpool have time for closer look at ‘new’ Philippe Coutinho
Liverpool's recruitment is so sharp that they were already being linked with Alexander Isak, Donyell Malen and Christoph Baumgartner before they demanded attention from a wider audience via Euro 2020.
You can bet that Michael Edwards knew all about Sweden and Real Sociedad striker Isak, Holland and PSV forward Malen and Austria and Hoffenheim midfielder Baumgartner before the tournament got underway in earnest.
But there is another rising star, not widely tipped for a possible move to Liverpool, who could be catching Edwards' eye.
Mikkel Damsgaard produced one of the moments of the tournament so far when he brilliantly bent the ball into the top corner to set Denmark on their way to a vital 4-1 victory over Russia on an emotional night in Copenhagen.
In doing so, the 20-year-old became the youngest Danish player to score at a European Championship and underlined why he has been tipped for a big move soon.
Barcelona, along with Tottenham Hotspur, are credited with interest in the Sampdoria attacker.
But what about Liverpool?
Football scouting writer, David Hughes, speaking on the latest Analysing Anfield podcast, believes Damsgaard could fit the bill when the time comes for Jurgen Klopp to build another title-winning team.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
