Football journalist Luis Miguel Echegaray has been sharing his thoughts on Udinese midfielder Rodrigo De Paul and the possibility of him moving to Anfield this summer.
This comes after Echegaray made a guest appearance on a recent episode of the LFC Transfer Room Podcast where he spoke about a variety of transfer-related subjects.
On the topic of De Paul, who has been mentioned with regards to a move to Liverpool in the past, Echegaray had this to say about the player.
He said: “When it comes to South American talent that’s coming specifically from the European continent, sometimes what happens is they want to stay within La Liga, Serie A or even the Bundesliga as opposed to making a move to the Premier League unless they get a bigger pitch.
“But because Liverpool obviously [are] a Champions League team, won the Premier League recently, won the Champions League as well, such a big squad, are a very giant club, I would imagine that any kind of pitch – direct, official offer – might intrigue him, but I think that Atletico [Madrid] still leads with this, but you never know.
“He’s the kind of player that [Liverpool] need because Rodrigo De Paul is not just a workhorse in the midfield, he’s a creator. He makes things happen. He moves the chains, and when you have players like Mohamed Salah, [Roberto] Firmino, [Sadio] Mane right in front of you, you need that kind of person in the middle.”
Udinese signed De Paul back in the 2016 summer transfer window from Valencia for a fee of £2.7 million. Since then, the 27-year-old, who is currently valued at £34.2 million, has made 184 appearances for the Italian club in which he has managed to score 34 goals and provide 36 assists along the way (per Transfermarkt).
TIF Thoughts on Luis Miguel Echegaray’s comments on De Paul…
Given how De Paul ended the 2020/21 season with more goals (9) and assists (9) than any other Udinese player in Serie A, making him the club’s highest-rated player with an overall rating of 7.41/10 according to WhoScored, it’s understandable why Echegaray thinks he would be a good fit at Liverpool considering they had some issues scoring goals last season.
Would you like to see Liverpool try and sign De Paul?
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In our view, if Liverpool were able to sign De Paul, this would undoubtedly provide them with a suitable creative replacement for Georginio Wijnaldum, who recently joined Paris Saint-Germain as a free agent.
However, with Atletico Madrid now looking likely to sign the Argentine this summer as Echegaray mentioned, perhaps the Reds should focus on other midfield targets.
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