Ryan Gravenberch has been a prominent name on the Liverpool rumour mill in recent weeks, but it seems he’s not the only Bundesliga midfielder who’s catching the eye on Merseyside.
According to 90min, Florian Neuhaus of Borussia Monchengladbach is another player on the Anfield club’s radar for the summer, along with the Bayern Munich man, plus Premier League trio Mason Mount, Alexis Mac Allister and James Maddison.
The 26-year-old has been touted as a possible target for Jurgen Klopp’s side before, with the Reds having also been linked with him in 2021 (The Mirror).
READ MORE: Bid readied: Liverpool set to submit first offer for ‘profitable asset’ in coming days
READ MORE: Editor’s Column: Liverpool’s midfield in 2023/24; the old, the young and the new
Speaking at the time of those rumours two years ago, Emile Heskey drew comparisons between the German and a former Liverpool player.
The one-time Anfield striker told HITC in relation to Neuhaus: “I think they’ve missed that (sort of player) since Coutinho. Someone who can get in those pockets, travel with the ball and start committing defenders to come out of those spaces which they can exploit.
“Someone like him would suit Liverpool in the way that they play. Someone who can really drive with the ball. If you just sit in your zones, then it’s difficult to actually break teams down. If you can have someone with a bit of creativity, who starts pulling players all over the place, that’s what you need.”
The Monchengladbach midfielder has endured a frustrating season, with cruciate ligament damage sidelining him for almost all the first half of the campaign and the 26-year-old only winning back his place as a regular starter in recent weeks (Transfermarkt).
WhoScored lists dribbling as one of his main skills, although data from FBref shows that he actually ranks among the bottom 12% of positional peers in Europe’s five main leagues for successful take-ons per 90 over the past 12 months.
Where he could be more of an asset is in terms of breaking up the play, as he ranks in the 90th percentile for interceptions and 86th percentile for blocks made among midfielders in the top five European leagues over the last year (FBref).
Neuhaus mightn’t yet be among the primary midfield summer transfer targets for Liverpool, certainly among hotly-linked names like Mac Allister or Gravenberch – but 90min’s report suggests that the Reds are casting a wide net rather than putting all their eggs towards just one or two players in the market.