It has been a bad weekend for Liverpool. First, midfielder Adam Lallana suffered a knee injury while training in America. The England international is out for six weeks, including the opening game against his former team, Southampton. Now, the £8.5 million move for Loic Remy has been called off after he failed his medical in Boston. The reason why the move was cancelled has not been released by the club, but the problem is significant enough that the team is not willing to add the Frenchman to their squad, in an effort to boost their attacking options after selling Luis Suárez to Barcelona.
Brendan Rodgers now has to consider making other moves to replace Remy, as he looks to increase the depth of his rather small squad, which now has the Champions League to deal with. Maybe taking another shot at Borussia Dortmund’s Marco Reus is the solution for Rodgers. Unlike Remy, Reus is not a striker, but the German star would be a fantastic addition to the Reds – especially after the team failed to attract similar talents like Alexis Sanchez and Xherdan Shaqiri to Merseyside.
An attacking midfielder usually positioned on the left, Reus is an all-around offensive player. He had the second most goals and the most assists on the Bundesliga’s second place team. At 25, he still has not reached his prime; playing in a more competitive league like the English Premiere League can only help him grow. He also has Champions League pedigree, as he scored five goals in only nine games: his two goal performance against Real Madrid shows that he can play against the best competition. He is a fantastic dribbler and he uses that skill to create space to cut inside from the left, where he can unleash a shot from his powerful right foot.
Now the question is, where would he fit in Liverpool? Since Brendan Rodgers changes his formation often, depending on both the players available and the strengths of the opponent, all of the players on the squad will have ample playing time. Reus would most likely feature on the left side of most formations, cutting in and opening space for Daniel Sturridge, Raheem Sterling and Steven Gerrard to work their magic. His creativity and intelligent play will help him integrate into the Liverpool’s squad easily, and he can feast on the goal scoring opportunities that will come as a result of the Reds’ open and quick style of play.
As the midfield and forward portions of the squad have weakened, the defense has become significantly stronger as the team has announced the signing of Croatian defender, Dejan Lovren. I have gone over Lovren’s strengths in this article.
