Everything you NEED to know about Joel Ordonez as Liverpool agree transfer | OneFootball

Joel Ordonez looks like is going to be the first January signing of the window for Liverpool, here's everything you need to know.

A recent report has claimed that Richard Hughes has agreed a deal to sign the Ecuadorean centre-back from Club Brugge.

Ordonez has been playing in Belgium for several years now and has over 100 appearances for his current club, which is extremely impressive considering he is just 21-years-old.

He's a product of Independiente del Valle. One of the biggest academies in South America, who continue to regularly develop players for top European sides.

In the last few years, Independiente del Valle products include Moises Caicedo, Willian Pacho, Piero Hincapie.

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Liverpool have a good relationship with Independiente del Valle. The club's scouts regularly attend games and they will have known about Ordonez for many years now.

This will likely have given Liverpool the confidence to pursue a move for the player, even if the step-up from Belgium to the Premier League is a big one.

So, what kind of player will Liverpool be getting?

Like we mentioned, a very experienced player for someone of his age, and position.

First and foremost, he’s a very good defender who reads the game really well. Obviously, he's still raw at 21-years-old but there’s a lot of qualities to like.

His timing and anticipation, when to engage, when to sit-back is almost always immaculate which is exactly what you want to see from a defender.

On top of that, he’s very good in one vs one situations. When engaging in these duels, he is excels at using his long legs and athleticism to pry the ball away from his opponents. He's simply very hard to beat. This season he won 72.4% of his defensive duels.

Another advantage he has is that he's relatively quick and he covers a lot of ground in the right-sided centre-back role.

Sometimes he does struggle against counter attacking situations. He has the tendency to overcommit during turnovers when he’s isolated. An example of this would be against Barcelona in the Champions League, where their speed and Hansi Flick's style caused him a few problems. It’s an area of his game that he needs to work on.

But equally, he also had a very good performance against Arsenal, when playing in a deeper defensive set-up and against a team that tried to break them down.

When you watch him play, Ordonez has a very strong physical profile but he’s not mastered the art of using that to his advantage. He sometimes gets shrugged off the ball too easily and as a result he’s also not the strongest player in defensive aerial duels. He’s won just 54% of his 3.65 aerial duels per 90 this season.

© IMAGO - Joel Ordonez Liverpool

These are all elements that are normal for a 21-year-old CB to not be perfect at.

What is impressive is his reading of the game. That’s something that’s a lot harder to teach.

He’s also a relatively composed player on the ball and barely gives away possession. When he's under pressure he's able to deal with those situations, which is again something to admire.

He won’t be making line-breaking passes or long switches but he keeps things simple. His 94% pass completion rate this season is impressive.

Clearly, he is a project for Liverpool but he is a project that is exciting and who has a lot of potential. Right now Liverpool simply need bodies and more options and Ordonez is going to be a perfect addition to Arne Slot's squad.