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Liverpool recently confirmed the signing of Swiss
international Xherdan Shaqiri from Stoke. The fee is rumoured to be somewhere
in the region of thirteen million pounds, a relatively trifling sum in the
modern market. Klopp will be hoping that the winger can deliver serious value
on the investment, and he certainly has the talent to do so – even if he
completely fails to show his best form at Liverpool, however, it is still hard
to envisage his stock depreciating in any significant manner. As the manager
said, this deal is a “no-brainer”.
Plenty of supporters will remember getting very excited
about Shaqiri when he was first linked to the club, back in the summer of 2014.
At the time he was a 22-year-old talent who had showcased his potential in
Bayern’s historic treble-winning season the previous year; he had struggled for
consistent game time in the star-studded squad, but looked capable of being a
world-beater in the right side.
Now 26, he has arguably never quite found that side – his
spell at Inter lasted just six months, while Stoke lacked the quality to fully
unlock his potential. However, Shaqiri was able to progress a lot personally
during his time at The Potters. Frequently tasked with winning matches on his
own, he delivered with impressive regularity: last season proved a stretch too
far even for him, as Stoke found themselves relegated to the Championship, but
Shaqiri’s own numbers were the best he has posted since joining the Premier League.
His core attributes look ready-made for a Klopp system.
Almost any player in the world would be required to raise their distance
covered during a match in order to fit in at Liverpool, but the Swiss winger is
by no means a long way off the pace – his eagerness to put in the hard yards is
apparent whenever he plays, and there is little doubt about his physical
condition. His versatility is also important. Few if any new signings could be
guaranteed a starting berth in Liverpool’s attack, and Shaqiri is no exception;
it is likely that he will be required in a variety of positions across the
course of a long season. This will not be a problem: not only has he played on
both wings, his average positions for Stoke reveal a significant amount of time
spent in a more central and withdrawn role. He is comfortable creating chances
from this pocket – with the likes of Salah and Mane as runners, his assist
numbers will only improve.
Add to this package his pace, trickery and unerring ability
from long range, and it is easy to see why Klopp moved to sign him. In the
modern game, 26 is still young – Shaqiri represents a significant improvement
on the current options off the bench even if he doesn’t develop at all in his
time at Anfield, but there is no reason to think that he can’t finally unleash
the potential that he has shown in flashes for years. It is no coincidence that
Shaqiri has been a standout player at each of the last three major
international tournaments: when he is given minutes in a side with a bit of
quality, we see the best of him. Klopp, a veritable master of bringing the best
out of players, will only help in this regard.
The one real question is whether the winger will be afforded
the minutes he needs to properly reach his excitingly high peak, but it would
be foolish to attack the signing on this basis. For one thing, he is likely to
rack up significant playing time across the course of the campaign. Furthermore,
squad depth is something fans have been rightly craving for a long time –
Shaqiri emphatically addresses this need, and this is a cause for celebration
rather than complaint. Imagine for a
moment that Shaqiri was available to call upon in Kyiv when Salah was forced
off early; the outcome might not have been any different, but it seems likely
that there would have been a fair amount more confidence that the team still
had a fighting chance if this level of quality could have been summoned off the
bench.
Finally, on a pragmatic note, what is there to lose? The
preceding points are not empty words – Shaqiri really could develop into a
player to rival those currently occupying Liverpool’s front three – but even if
he does not do so, the club will suffer no great detriment. Even in a
worst-case scenario where Shaqiri fails to make any impact whatsoever on the
first team, it is easy to imagine that there would still be a host of clubs
queuing up to take a ten-million-pound gamble on a man clearly blessed with
talent. In other words, the club could likely recoup most of the fee with ease
even in the unlikely event that things completely fail to work out. There are
still his wages to think about, but with the likes of Bogdan and Markovic still
on the books it would seem odd to take specific issue with Shaqiri.
Embrace the return to the summer of 2014. Liverpool are a
team on the up, and this time the top talent has not only been linked to the
club but has arrived. Shaqiri will not be a guaranteed starter, as he may have
been back then, but that is just a sign of the progress the club has made –
this progress will only be aided by the addition of this most talented of squad
players, who with a bit of luck might yet become one of Klopp’s world-beaters.
@JamesMartin013
