After narrowly missing out on the Premier League title, pipped by Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, Jurgen Klopp will look to add a few more stars to his team in the summer transfer window to help Liverpool cross the line and finally win the Premier League.
Klopp’s team have now been linked with Benfica’s Gedson Fernandes, who is one of the many talents to come through the Portuguese club’s famed academy. The 20-year-old midfielder is worth around £35 million and the likes of Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United are also rumoured to be interested in him.
Fernandes, along with Rúben Dias, Rafa Silva, and the brightest gem in Benfica’s crown, Joao Felix, have all been linked with various clubs before the summer transfer window.
What will Fernandes bring to the Liverpool team?
Fernandes is a box-to-box midfielder who has excellent work-rate and can get from one box to another time after time in a match. The midfielder has the heart and legs to run all day long and add energy to a team’s midfield. The Benfica midfielder does all the dirty work in midfield while his creative teammates wreak havoc ahead of him.
Technically sound and with the ability to attack and defend, Fernandes is a player who can be groomed for a prominent role in a top Premier League team in the future. The Portuguese international has the work-rate that Jurgen Klopp demands of his players, but it remains to be seen where he will fit in if he does sign with Liverpool.
A £35 million price tag will mean that he will have to play a major part in the team, but with the likes of Naby Keïta, Fabinho, Georginio Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson the options for Klopp, and the returning Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain offering another option in midfield, there may not be a place for Fernandes in the squad let alone the first XI.
But if Liverpool buy him and then loan him back to Benfica or a team in the Premier League to give him more experience before he becomes a key player for the Liverpool team, that would make sense.
Fernandes has won two senior caps for Portugal while also being a part of the Portugal U-17 team that won the 2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship.