Liverpool hope to sign one of two attacking midfield playmakers and have sent scouts to monitor each in recent weeks.
Liverpool are looking at signing Ajax playmaker Christian Eriksen or Henrikh Mkhitaryan of Shakhtar Donetsk this summer, according to the Daily Mirror, and have watched both recently.
Reds scouts have been seen at both the attacking midfielders’ matches in the international break, with Mkhitaryan shining for Armenia against the Czech Republic, and Eriksen now Denmark’s main creative threat.
24 year-old Mkhitaryan is the captain of Armenia, and has 37 caps, but it is the prodigal Eriksen with 34 caps to his name at the age of 21 who has been to international tournaments and impressed.
The Mirror report that it is the Dane who is Brendan Rodgers’ main summer transfer target, and Eriksen is certainly the more established name in European football.
His club’s director of football Marc Overmars confirmed Liverpool’s interest in Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.
“We have a list of scouts from foreign clubs recently seen [at Ajax] and Liverpool have been regular visitors,” confirmed the former Arsenal and FC Barcelona winger.
Both Eriksen and Mkhitaryan are versatile, and would provide a lot of options for Brendan Rodgers.
Each prefers to be deployed in the number ten role behind a striker, but both have also played matches as either central midfielder and as a more orthodox attacker, and it will be interesting to see what position Rodgers deploys either if a bid proves successful.
Liverpool’s current interchanging front three of Luis Suarez, Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge has performed well.
With the Uruguayan the current top scorer in the Premier League and the latter two recent signings from the last transfer window, it seems reasonable to suggest that Eriksen or Mkhitaryan would play just behind the attacking line – and likely ahead of Steven Gerrard and Lucas Leiva in the deeper midfield roles.
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