Real Madrid outcast Luka Jović has been linked with a move to Liverpool ahead of next season. Young and at a value low point, FSG could eye a transfer.
Should Liverpool buy a new centre forward during the next summer transfer window? That’s been on the minds of many over the last several months.
Many Liverpool fans felt concerned at the tail end of last season. Mohamed Salah had scored the goals that kept Liverpool in contention for a Champions League place, whilst Roberto Firmino and Sadio Manè’s form nosedived.
This season, Salah has kept his remarkable consistency going, whilst Manè has also returned to form, and Firmino’s minutes-to-goal ratio is extraordinary. Diogo Jota has also chimed in with a few key goals, and so seemingly there is little problem for Liverpool in an attacking sense.
Yet by the end of the season, things will become a little bit more complicated. Both Firmino and Manè’s contracts are expiring at the end of June 2023, and it’s long since been believed that one of them will likely be sold to rejuvenate the front line. FSG are committed to a self-sustaining model, meaning funds must be raised from somewhere. Who goes and who stays likely depends on the form of both over the next few months.
Reports in Spain have linked Liverpool with a transfer move for Real Madrid outcast Luka Jović.
The Serb striker signed for Los Blancos in the summer of 2019 for a huge fee after impressing for German side Eintracht Frankfurt in the 2018/19 campaign. Jović scored some 27 goals in all competitions, 10 in the Europa League, as Frankfurt reached the semi-final in what was his breakout season.
Madrid then paid north of £56m to bring the striker to the Spanish capital. It was expected that Jović would form a partnership with Karim Benzema.
Only it didn’t quite work out like that.
Jović struggled at the Santiago Bernabèu, in another case of a player getting a move perhaps a little too soon. He scored two La Liga goals in 17 games and his second, coming in the 4-1 away win over Osasuna in February 2020, is his last for the club to date. He hasn’t scored since, in any competition.
Jović returned to Frankfurt on loan halfway through last season, but only scored four times in the Bundesliga, as he failed to recapture the form that won him the big move in the first place.
He was returned to sender last summer, and his disastrous spell in Spain continues. He’s made five appearance this season under Carlo Ancelotti, but hasn’t scored.
Could Liverpool and FSG rescue Jović from his Spanish torment?
Jović is a completely different type of forward than is currently at the club. He’s fast, but not lightning fast, strong, but not very strong, technically proficient, but not possessing Lionel Messi-esque control, Jović has the potential to really blossom into a top striker granted he arrives at the right club with the right coach.
Jović’s best quality is arguably finding space inside the six-yard box. So many of his goals for Frankfurt came from a central position after the ball was pulled back from either full-back at the byline. It doesn’t take too much to envision Jović feeding off the same kind of service from Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson.
The transfer of Jović would make Liverpool a little more fixed in terms of having a centre-forward who isn’t capable of interchanging positions. Jović played his best football for Frankfurt in a two-man partnership, and part of his struggles has been due to Madrid playing in a 4-3-3.
Dependant on the transfer fee Madrid demanded for Jović, he could be a worthy option next summer, if Jürgen Klopp is seeking to refresh the front line. Jović is still only 23-years-old, and he would fit the FSG profile in terms of youth and ability for money to be recouped.
What is certain is that Madrid wouldn’t get close to the money they shelled out for Jović two years ago. It may be just pure speculation at this stage, but Jović is a player keeping an eye on for Liverpool and FSG ahead of next summer.
Still the defence leaves much to be desired. Too much goals are allowed