He is a defensive midfielder who has a bit of creativity about him. He is constantly looking for that pass that will create something for the team. When I watched him play on Friday night he looked calm when he received the ball and rarely gave it away, he was always looking for a forward pass to try and set Italy on the attack and create an opportunity for them to score and was back defending and putting in tackles to help the defence out.
He is Napoli’s most creative player, not including their front four, this season with 32 key passes made, 2 goals and 4 assists in the league. When we were first linked with him I thought where would he play in our midfield if we have the likes of Can, Henderson, Keita, Wijnaldum, Lallana, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Milner. The departure of Emre Can seems more likely as the summer transfer window approaches after recently saying he can see himself playing for a ???really big club’ next season and it coming out this morning that he wants to be earning £200,000 a week. A lot of fans will say that we have Keita coming in the summer so he is the Emre Can replacement if you like so buying another midfielder is not top priority but if we would have landed the Leipzig midfielder in January would he not have partnered Can in midfield for the remainder of the season?
Emre Can has played as a defensive midfielder in the absence of Jordan Henderson this season and has put in some great performances and when Henderson or Milner are in the team Can is used as a box-to box midfielder. Naby Keita is a box-to-box midfielder meaning that he can fill in that gap if Can leaves but will only have Henderson, Milner or Wijnaldum to partner him. Jorginho regularly plays defensive midfield for Napoli so having him and Keita as our midfield partnership along with Lallana or Oxlade-Chamberlain who offers that little bit of extra creativity for our front three would be a massive improvement for our team.
It also helps that both those midfield players are regular in their club’s starting eleven meaning that they have experience in the Champions League having both played in that competition this season. There is no guarantee that he will fit in at Liverpool but Napoli possess a similar style of play to the Reds with both teams liking to press high and counter with speed. Jorginho is tasked with supplying their attacking players as well as being in the last line of defence when his team come under pressure. I think he would be a great addition to our midfield, especially if Can leaves, and would form a great partnership alongside Naby Keita who we all know will be bossing our midfield next season.
Article by Lauren Black
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