The Safe Way To Go? – Why Liverpool Would Be Better Off Avoiding Thomas Lemar
Monaco has a successful season last term. Stars such Kylian Mbappe, Benjamin Mendy, Bernardo Silva, Thomas Lemar and Tiémoué Bakayoko were born, as Leonardo Jardim’s team won the Ligue1 and had a successful season in the Champions League as well, finishing their campaign in the semi-final stage of the campaign. Most of the stars have left the team in order to further their career aspects. Thomas Lemar too has been linked with a move to Liverpool recently as reports suggest that the Reds were interested in launching a £75m bid.
He had a fantastic season last time out, registering 14 goals and 17 assists as he helped the strike force of Kylian Mbappe and Radamel Falcao get their goals. They had such a fantastic season, so much so that all their valuable assets have been poached away by the big clubs in England and around Europe. Few of the stars still remain at the club and Thomas Lemar is one of them.
But the Red side of Anfield have been keen on bringing him in as a potential replacement for Phillipe Coutinho, who is on the verge of a £148.5m move to Catalonia.
He is renowned for his dribbling skills, passing nuance, and ability on set-pieces. Arsenal were trying to prise him away to the Emirates Stadium where he could’ve lined up alongside few of his international colleagues such as Koscielny, Giroud and Lacazette. But Arsene Wenger’s reluctance to spend big on the Frenchman has lead to the collapse of the deal even before it getting initiated.
Lemar has been on the horizon for quite some time now after he started off at French team Caen following which Monaco picked him up. But with quite a few wingers at the club, Liverpool would be loathed to sign up Thomas Lemar. The arrival of Mohamed Salah from Roma has helped hugely as the player has contributed sufficiently in his first few games at the Anfield club.
Liverpool should instead look to bring in another midfielder such as Julian Draxler or Leon Goretzka, with both of them having the key factor of versatility. Lemar can only be deployed as a winger or as an attacking midfielder whereas Liverpool need someone who can operate in quite a few positions more than that. Therefore, they would be better off without signing Lemar and instead look to build the squad around stars such as Salah, Mane and Firmino.