Liverpool have been linked with a move for Sporting Lisbon attacker Bruno Fernandes, it has been claimed.
The Reds returned to the top of the table, but have been heavily reliant on their front three to for their goals.
Portuguese daily Correio de Manha claim that Sporting will cash in on the midfielder in the summer, and are expected to settle for something lower than the €100 million release clause the player has in his contract.
Sporting aren’t in a healthy financial condition according to a report by Espn, so selling Fernandes for decent money could help ease the club’s situation to an extent.
Bruno Fernandes – Fact file
Fernandes spent his youth career with Boavista, but his big breakthrough came in Italy with Udinese.
After helping Udinese to the Serie A, Fernandes featured for the team in three full top-flight seasons before moving on loan to Sampdoria.
Fernandes spent a year with Sampdoria, and signed permanently for the club in 2017 before he was sold in the same window to Sporting for a fee of €9.6 million.
Overall, in 119 Serie A appearances, Fernandes mustered 15 goals and 14 assists. His numbers have improved in the Portuguese league, naturally, as the Serie A was a tougher league.
Still only 24, Fernandes has managed to make quite a lot of top-flight appearances, which has helped him develop his game at a quick rate. Fernandes has scored 11 goals in 21 Liga NOS games this season, which is an incredible number for an attacking midfielder.
Bruno Fernandes would add more creativity to Liverpool
Liverpool have built a good squad under Jürgen Klopp and have managed to challenge Manchester City for the league so far. However, their performances in the domestic cups suggest that they don’t have the depth to compete with City.
Fernandes’s ability on the ball is second to none in the Portuguese league, so he has all the ingredients to succeed in Klopp’s system.
The 24-year old is tenacious for an attacking midfielder, and like current Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita, Fernandes can pick a pass to make a driving run into the opposition half using his impressing dribbling to evade defenders.
Fernandes has managed an incredible 2.9 key passes for Sporting this season, and gets into good positions to test the opposition goalkeeper, having mustered at least three shots a game on an average.
Seven assists and 11 goals in 21 appearances if pretty impressive, and his ability to score goals from midfield would take a lot of pressure off the front three of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah.
Stats via Whoscored