According to Fabrizio Romano, Liverpool are interested in signing FC Schalke star Assan Ouedraogo but will face competition for the young talent’s signature.
The Reds came out victorious on the other side of the Merseyside Derby last weekend at Anfield, despite controversy surrounding some of the decisions made by the referees throughout the fixture against Everton.
Liverpool are now fourth in the Premier League table just three points off the top after nine games, and Jurgen Klopp will be delighted with the consistency in performances retained throughout the opening few months of the campaign in all competitions.
The Merseyside giants will be keen to qualify for Champions League football at the very least this season as a bare minimum and will set their sights on doing that through both placement qualification and taking their chances to win the Europa League too.
The club and long-term head coach Klopp worked hard over the summer to rectify some of the glaring issues that contributed to Liverpool’s ultimate failure to qualify to participate on the most elite European stage, which included offloading players and integrating new talent in pre-season.
Both the vice-captain James Milner and club captain Jordan Henderson were just two of the high-profile outgoings the club signed off this summer, however, the risk of letting go of two of the most influential and experienced members of the squad in the dressing room has seemingly paid off so far.
Now Klopp could be set to add even more depth to his youth revolution in the centre of the pitch, as Italian journalist and transfer insider Fabrizio Romano confirmed Liverpool’s interest in Assan Ouedraogo during his Daily Briefing today…
“There have been reports about Liverpool being keen on Schalke youngster Assan Ouedraogo, and yes it’s true that Liverpool like him,”
“But it’s the same for Bayern Munich and AC Milan. They are all informed on his situation, on his release clauses – he has different ones based on the clubs interested.”
“For sure he’s a top talent and that’s why those three clubs are interested.”
“I think he has great potential, he’ll need some time to develop but he looks a very good player.”
Who is Assan Ouedraogo?
Whilst Liverpool have added Dominik Szoboszlai, Wataru Endo, Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch to their midfield personnel already this year, it is never a bad thing for the club to be thinking about the future of the squad.
Ouedraogo is attracting huge interest from some of the biggest clubs in Europe and it’s not hard to see why when you consider the 17-year-old’s impact on Schalke in the Bundesliga 2.
Over ten league appearances, the defensive-minded midfielder has scored one goal, tallied up an 81% pass completion rate and successfully completed 59% of his dribble attempts, as per SofaScore.
Not only that, Ouedraogo ranks in the top 20% of his positional peers in the Men’s Next 14 Competitions for non-penalty goals, shots in total, shot-creating actions and progressive carries, as well as ranking in the top 10% for successful take-ons and touches per 90 minutes played, as per FBref.
The youngster has already been the recipient of high praise since being thrust into the spotlight by the German club, with Schalke legend Olaf Thon waxing lyrical about Ouedraogo:
“He has everything, game intelligence, speed, teamwork, goal threat and he can play the final pass.”
With that being said, Ouedraogo seems like an interesting and attractive prospect worth considering especially since his strengths lie in the deep-lying role that is yet to be fully replaced at Anfield as of yet.
It will be interesting to see if Liverpool take the next steps to register their interest in the midfield dynamo or whether they will avoid getting into any transfer battles with clubs across Europe either in January or next summer.
