Liverpool have reportedly contacted a Serie A club in relation to one player who’s deemed to be not for sale this summer.
Whilst the Reds have rejected an offer from Marseille for Wataru Endo, they continue to scope out possible midfield additions coming into the final month of the transfer window, one of whom is Morten Frendrup of Genoa.
According to TuttoMercatoWeb, the Reds are among the Premier League clubs to have submitted ‘requests for information’ on the 23-year-old, who’s reportedly valued in the region of €25m (£21.1m) but is deemed ‘unsellable’ by the Rossoblu.
The Italian outfit are eager to retain the Danish enforcer and partner him with Jens Cajuste, who they’re hoping to acquire from Napoli.
Could Frendrup be the man to provide Liverpool with a dominant presence at the base of midfield for the next few years?
Some of his statistics over the past year suggest that he might be a strong candidate. As per FBref, he ranked among the top 1% of positional peers in Europe’s five main leagues last season for tackles per 90 minutes (3.81), as well as the top 13% for interceptions (1.46) and top 17% for blocks (1.57) per game.
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While the 23-year-old is adept at breaking up play, though, his passing metrics rank distinctly poorly in comparison to other midfielders at that level (FBref), which could be a point of concern for Arne Slot.
He’s well within Liverpool’s price range at the figure mentioned in the above report, although persuading Genoa to sell him could take all of Richard Hughes’ cunning given their unbudging stance so far.
For now it seems to be little more than a case of the Reds gathering more information to determine whether or not a formal offer is worth submitting, but it’s a transfer link which could nonetheless be worth keeping an eye on over the coming month.
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Can’t even make the national team