Federico Pastorello has opened up on Arthur Melo’s struggles at Liverpool, crediting Fiorentina for giving his client a fresh opportunity.
The Brazilian racked up only one senior appearance for Liverpool – coming for a brief cameo in our 4-1 defeat at the hands of Napoli – amid a serious injury blow.
Such was the nature of his time at L4 that his agent admitted ‘it wasn’t easy to pick him up’.
“First of all I publicly thank Joe Barone and Daniele Pradè, as well as Vincenzo Italiano,” the intermediary told TuttoMercatoWeb. “They had the courage to listen to my insistent invitation to think about this player, because coming from such a difficult season like the one at Liverpool, with an injury that lasted longer than expected and a difficult recovery, even though in my opinion he deserved to play a little more, it wasn’t easy to pick him up.”
Things have since picked up somewhat for the 27-year-old who has gone on to register 1,112 minutes on the pitch in 2023/24 in the Italian top-flight.
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A real shame
Arriving at Anfield with quite some pedigree attached- we shouldn’t forget that Arthur had previously been hailed as the future at Barcelona – the former Juventus man came with skills that would have been of value.
Injury and subsequent surgery sadly took its toll, further exposing just how limited our own midfield options were in 2022/23.
It’s been quite the turnaround since that point, of course, following the arrivals of Dominik Szoboszlai and Co.
Still, we can’t help but stare into the distance on occasion and wonder what might have been for Arthur Melo.