Should Liverpool Target DeAndre Yedlin?

Ever since Fabio Aurelio’s first injury, Liverpool has had quite an obvious flaw at left back. Be it the injury prone Enrique or Konchesky, Insua, Cissokho or Dossena; surely no one can argue that any of the players listed have matched our expectations as fans of what a Liverpool left back should be. As a result each transfer window seems to link us with every left back there is.

However, despite us clearly having a weakness at left back, I can’t help but feel that this last season if we had had a better right back than Glen Johnson we would have won the title. Having defended Johnson against criticism from my non-Liverpool-fan mates; I couldn’t help but agree with them this last season. One game stood out for me, which was the Crystal Palace game, where he never got close to Bolasie, and never gave a struggling Skrtel any support.

But the real question is when was the last time that he produced a performance that was any better than average?
However one player who has been linked to Liverpool during the last week isn’t a left back and instead is a right back.

The player I refer to is DeAndre Yedlin.

I, like most, had probably never heard of Yedlin until his fantastic performances for the USA in their valiant world cup campaign. However his eye catching energy and speed have seemingly caught the eye of the Liverpool scouts, who are looking to see if we could get the 20 year old on a trial period if rumours be true.

In my opinion this could be a fantastic idea if we could convince the MLS and the Seattle Saunders. To start with the worst case scenario is we take him on trial over some pre-season friendlies, he doesn’t impress and we don’t sign him. Hardly tragic! However the potential benefits would certainly outweigh that one potential drawback.

Firstly his age. At just 20 Yedlin has plenty of first team experience and he can now boast as well top level international experience. This all point towards an impressive career if he can keep on developing at the same rate which has already seen him in his first senior season score 2 goals and provide 3 assists in 33 games, regardless of the MLS obviously being seen as a lesser league to the premier league they are impressive for any 20 year old full backs debut season.

Secondly wages. Glen Johnson is supposedly earning in the region of £90,000 to £120,000 depending on what reports you believe, whereas Yedlin according to the MLS players union is on just $80,000 a year. Now a move to a Champions League club would definitely result in a huge increase to his wages but he would still very possibly be one of lowest earners. If he could replace Johnson this would save a lot of money in the long run, which will become more and more important with the financial fair plays rules becoming increasingly significant over the next few years.

Finally he’s American. Ever since John W Henry and Co took over, we have been trying to increase our presence in the USA, be it pre-season tours to America, using the American Warrior Sports as our kit provider or being associated with Dunkin’ Donuts! But the one thing we were obviously lacking was an American player.

If Yedlin could help increase our presence in America then even if he doesn’t play a single minute of first team football he would be a good buy financially speaking. If you have seen the pictures of the fan parks in Chicago or heard about Obama personally congratulating Tim Howard, you will realise just how close the American’s are to seriously adopting ‘soccer’ as one of their main sports, and if Liverpool have one of their star players in the team it could really give us a head start in the battle for fans and commercial deals.

To conclude, I can’t seriously see any real downside for going for Yedlin, and I even believe we could risk selling Johnson and replace him with Yedlin if his trial was successful, along with the likes of Flanagan, Wisdom and McLaughlin waiting in the wings we would have an abundance of young talent to step in. That being said it isn’t just Liverpool who are interested if you believe the papers with Roma also hot on his tail; so we may need to move quick if we are to secure his signature.

Should we take the gamble on this World Cup hotshot?