Unfortunately Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool team didn’t make it to this year’s Europa League final, but it’s emerged that there was some Merseyside representation in Dublin last night.
According to Graeme Bailey for HITC, scouts from Anfield were in attendance at the Aviva Stadium as Atalanta ended Bayer Leverkusen’s hopes of an unbeaten season and a European trophy.
It’s claimed that the LFC delegation was keeping tabs on Florian Wirtz, who despite being on the losing side here has been outstanding throughout the season. Manchester City are also understood to have been watching the 21-year-old closely on the night.
Sadly for Xabi Alonso and Leverkusen, they chose their biggest game of the season to put in their worst performance, and their unexpected struggles in the Irish capital were encapsulated by Wirtz.
The Germany playmaker had a modest 77% passing success rate, lost eight of his 13 duels, succeeded with just one of his four attempted dribbles, was dribbled past three times and gave away the ball 21 times before he was substituted with 10 minutes remaining (Sofascore).
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However, one subdued performance shouldn’t detract from what a phenomenal campaign the 21-year-old and his team have had, with the attacker scoring 18 goals and setting up another 20 in his 48 appearances since August (Transfermarkt).
Leverkusen value him at a staggering €150m (£128m), via GOAL, while Alonso has said that the youngster reminds him of Lionel Messi for his intelligent and efficient use of the ball (GOAL).
The German wonderkid ranks among the top 20% of positional peers in Europe’s five main leagues for a series of key metrics (FBref), and one off-night won’t suddenly see transfer interest evaporate.
He’d be a tremendous addition at Liverpool, and hopefully his display in Dublin won’t have seen him marked down too severely, even if the Bundesliga champions’ asking price would likely take a vast chunk out of the Reds’ summer transfer budget.