Neil Jones has revealed that Liverpool ‘are looking at’ Crystal Palace midfielder Cheick Doucoure as a replacement for Saudi-bound Fabinho.
The Brazil international is the subject of a £40m bid from Saudi Pro League side Al-Ittihad and has not travelled to Germany to take part in pre-season training with the rest of Jurgen Klopp’s squad.
Despite already signing Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai the Reds are being linked with more midfield signings this summer and Jones has weighed in on the links between Doucoure and the Anfield outfit.
“I think he’s definitely a name Liverpool are looking at, he’s in the mix,” Jones told Redmen TV.
“He’d be an interesting signing as there’ll be questions about him on the ball – I think off the ball he would add a lot.
“The conversations I had with people were that he’d be really good at stopping transitions and stopping that problem that was there last season with Liverpool being too easy to play through.
“Fabinho at his best was brilliant at that – he’s of that ilk.”
The Daily Mail have reported that Palace have slapped a £70m price tag on the Mali international to ward off interest from Liverpool.
The Reds, however, are set to receive £40m for Fabinho and another £12m for Al Ettifaq-linked Jordan Henderson which would cover the majority of that transfer fee.
At 23 years of age Doucoure best years are still ahead of him but he held his own in the Premier League last term following his £18m move from French outfit Lens and helped the Eagles finish 11th in the table.
With creative ball players ahead of him like Thiago Alcantara, Mac Allister, Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones, the Palace star would replace Fabinho as our midfield general and someone who is in the side to thwart threatening looking attacks from the opposition.
This could be one to keep an eye on!
#Ep82 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: Who do Liverpool replace Henderson & Fabinho with?🎙️