Another day, another player who seems to have rejected Liverpool, first it was Mario Gotze was decided to stay at Bayern Munich and now Piotr Zielinski is also set to snub a move to the Premier League club.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise since Liverpool don’t have Champions League football to attract players next season, they don’t even have Europa League football and thus they are now looking at other options.
Another player now being linked with the club is Joao Mario from Sporting Lisbon. The 23-year-old had another fine season for the club and scored six goals and provided 11 assists for the side in just 33 games in the league campaign.
Joao is just one of those stars who seems to be getting stronger as each season progresses and he has been part of the Sporting system since 2004. Liverpool need quality in the team, but is Mario the right person for all that or is he just another name being linked with a club, who have lost their way in terms of attracting the best players.
An attacking midfielder, but do Liverpool need him?
If there is one thing that Liverpool have an abundance of is attacking midfielders. Adam Lallana, Roberto Firmino and Philippe Coutinho are just three players who can take up that role and Mario would be just another player who would be fighting for that position.
The 23-year-old might be dynamic, but he has not played in the top four leagues and thus bringing him to Liverpool might be a big risk. The German has signed three players for next season but barring Joel Matip, none of the other can even be considered as good players, who could improve Liverpool’s squad.
The fear is that Mario would also be a similar squad player and Liverpool do have a lot of good players coming through the ranks and singing another player for a position that does not really need strengthening.
The wings and the defence are the areas that Liverpool really need to look into and even they need to offload a few players, such as Christian Benteke and maybe Liverpool do not really need to sign Mario. The 23-year-old has been linked with a move to other top clubs as well and he is also part of the Euro squad for Portugal and if he does do a decent enough tournament, he could well end up at Manchester United.