Liverpool has reportedly rejected a
loan offer from AS Roma for Xherdan Shaqiri, but a summer departure seems
likely – and Jürgen Klopp may already have his replacement. You can buy Premier
League Tickets from our website, around the world to enjoy its terrific
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Liverpool has reportedly turned down
a loan offer from AS Roma for Xherdan Shaqiri, according to Italian journalist
Fabrizio Romano, with the Serie A club supposedly interested in the Swiss
international as a replacement for the injured Nicolo Zaniolo for the remainder
of the season.
Shaqiri has only made 10 appearances
for Liverpool all season (three of them from the start), playing just 256
minutes, but when handed his first start of the campaign in the Merseyside derby
in early December, he offered a timely reminder of his quality with a
well-taken goal in a polished all-round display.
At this stage, there would seem to be
very little benefit for Liverpool in letting him go, while for the player
himself, it's more than likely that he'll be adding a Premier League winner's medal
to his collection come to the end of the season and be able to play his part in
an iconic chapter in the club's history.
By the summer, though, there will
definitely be a conversation to be had about his future, and at 28, it seems
probable that he'll seek a new challenge elsewhere where he has greater
prospects of regular first-team football, especially given the arrival of
Takumi Minamino, who will almost certainly climb above Shaqiri in the pecking
order in due course.
Harvey Elliott
Harvey Elliott has impressed
enormously virtually every time he has been handed an opportunity since joining
in the summer, performing with a maturity well beyond his years. Even at 16, he
already looks comfortable performing at senior level for Liverpool, and in the FA Cup
victory against Everton, gave Lucas Digne – a French international – a torrid
time.
For the U23s on Monday night in the
5-0 win against Southampton, he was one of the top performers once again,
producing a composed finish after an intelligent run to latch on to Pedro
Chirivella's pass and open the scoring.
In terms of profile, there are
similarities with Shaqiri, in that Elliott is also a heavily left-footed,
diminutive creative attacker, best suited to cutting inside from the right-hand
side, but capable of slotting into a number of different roles, with the
skillset to potentially play across the forward line in years to come.
Klopp thinks about Liverpool signing
That isn't to say that Liverpool
won't invest in new attacking signings in the summer as well, but as succession
planning for the future of the attack becomes ever more important as time moves
on, Elliott is likely to become increasingly involved in Klopp's thinking, rather
than going out on loan as many youngsters do when trying to gain experience.
The fact that he's already training
regularly with some of the best players in the world at Melwood can only
accelerate his development, alongside his regular involvement for the U23s.
It's important not to place too much
pressure on such young shoulders, and development doesn't necessarily follow a
linear trajectory, but on the evidence so far, it wouldn't come as a major
surprise if Elliott is ready to take Shaqiri's place in the squad, and starts
to feature much more heavily for the senior side (not just in domestic cup
competitions) sooner rather than later.
At the very least, Elliott will have
pre-season to show why that should be the case.
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