£35m could do it: Liverpool ‘lurking’ for Brazilian beast who’s been dubbed better than Declan Rice | OneFootball

Liverpool are reportedly eyeing a potential swoop for a former Premier League midfielder who’s been hailed in some quarters as superior to Declan Rice.

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The Reds have reinforced their midfield options this summer with a club-record £116m deal for Florian Wirtz, while Tyler Morton has just departed for Lyon in a £15m transfer which was confirmed in the past 24 hours.

There could now be an opportunity to pounce for a Brazil international who’d be readily available in the weeks leading up to the 1 September deadline.

Liverpool ‘lurking’ for Douglas Luiz

According to CaughtOffside, Liverpool are among several English clubs showing an interest in Juventus midfielder Douglas Luiz, who could be on the market for €40m (£34.8m) this month.

Nottingham Forest are understood to be in pole position for the 27-year-old, although the Reds are ‘lurking in the background’ while Tottenham Hotspur, Everton, Leeds and West Ham are also monitoring the situation.

This follows on from recent reports that the former Aston Villa man failed to turn up for training in Turin and duly ran the risk of punishment from Bianconeri bosses.

(Photo by Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)

Liverpool need centre-backs this month, not Douglas Luiz

Luiz was a standout player in the Midlands during his previous Premier League spell, with ex-Liverpool winger Jermaine Pennant even proclaiming a couple of years ago that the Brazilian ‘can do everything’ that Rice can ‘and better’ (talkSPORT).

However, given the current composition of Arne Slot’s squad, it’d seem like a peculiar move to sign him this month when there are other positions in far greater need of addressing.

At present, the Reds have just three senior centre-backs, and two of those were unavailable for the double header against Athletic Bilbao on Monday, which duly saw Andy Robertson, Trey Nyoni and Wataru Endo all deployed out of position to fill a gap.

Unless Liverpool sign a defender in August, they’re one major injury away from a ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’ situation in terms of needing to utilise a midfielder like the Japan international or Ryan Gravenberch at centre-back, similar to how Fabinho and Jordan Henderson were forced to fill in defensively during the 2020/21 season.

In that event, a potential pillaging of midfield options might make a move for Luiz seem more logical, but Richard Hughes should be primarily focused on bringing in at least one natural centre-back this month above reinforcing any other position in the squad.

Two years ago when we overhauled our midfield and the Brazilian was excelling for Aston Villa, he would’ve seemed like the ideal transfer target. The situation is rather different now.