We continue our look at potential Liverpool targets this summer. With Jamie Carragher retiring, Sebastian Coates hugely out of favour, and Martin Skrtel also a possible departure – Brendan Rodgers will be looking to sign at least two centre-backs this summer. Here’s one who could fit the bill…
Marquinhos
Full name: Marcos Aoás Corrêa
Position: Centre back
Team: Roma
Age: 18
Nationality: Brazilian
This is two rare occasions wrapped into one player. First, the hype is completely deserved. Second, it’s an exciting, young, *defensive* talent from Brazil.
Marquinhos was bought just last summer from Corinthians by Roma for £2.6m. He’s since turned in consistently strong performances next to Burdisso and completely displaced Leonardo Castan.
Marquinhos is naturally very athletic without being very big; he excels because of his ability to read the game and make key interceptions. He’s averaging a 90 percent tackle success rate while making 5 tackles per game. Absolutely ridiculous, especially when you consider he’s 18 and he’s not even playing for any of Brazil’s youth teams . He reads the game astoundingly well which leads to his remarkable tackle success rate.
Of course, you have to wonder how he’s doing all of that defending. 5 tackles per game while rarely having any missed tackles is a lot, and its because Daniele de Rossi is having a torrid season, giving the ball away like its his job.
He might not be quite big enough for the Premiership yet (he’s light for his six foot frame), but I think he can fill out more. I think he’d be a perfect replacement for Carragher. Although he’s not played for any of Brazil’s youth teams past the U17s, he is likely to be called up to the U21s soon and looks likely to be in the picture for the World Cup. He’s considered by some to be the best defender in the Serie A this year, and I’d tend to agree with them. He’s been phenomenal, and it won’t be long before comparisons are made to Lúcio.
Currently touted for a price of five million Euro, I’d pay three times that for him. Unfortunately, interest appears to be growing from the blue side of Manchester so unless Mancini’s fired and his successor has no interest in Marquinhos, he’ll be pretty expensive. We do have pretty good relations with Roma though, so its worth a shot.
I’d really like to see our negotiators at least give this one a chance. Maybe offer Coates in some sort of a swap deal like Man City did last summer sending Savic to Fiorentina with some cash in exchange for Nastasic.
Written by OhYaBeauty
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