Ahead of the winter transfer window opening in a few weeks from now, reports have emerged that Serie A giants Inter Milan will be more than happy to let French midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia, depart come January after he has failed to live up to expectations since arriving San Siro last 2 summers from Monaco for €35m.
Inter are looking at a loan term that has an option for a permanent deal that can be secured for £18.5million for the France international, and the 23-year-old isn’t short of suitors.
Liverpool are said to be interested in landing the defensive midfielder come January, with Klopp reportedly very keen to add Kondogbia to the Reds ranks as he attempts to strengthen his squad in a bid to lead the Merseysiders to a first ever Premier League title win.
At the moment, Henderson plays as Liverpool’s first-choice holding midfielder, while he receives support from Emre Can. On the bench, there are Lucas Leiva, Marko Grujic and Kevin Stewart who are also able to play the position, so does pursuing another defensive midfielder makes any sense despite the club appearing to have depth in the role?
While Geoffrey Kondogbia remains a great player who could add some quality to Liverpool and also bring his versatility to play in defence to the table, he isn’t needed at Anfield. At least not in January.
Not only just because Liverpool are well-stocked in that department already, but also because signing another midfielder shouldn’t be of the highest priority to Klopp at the moment.
Besides, Kondogbia’s recent woeful form wouldn’t change overnight at Liverpool. Especially at a time of the season where there isn’t enough time for a new arrival to learn how a very demanding and tough playing system like Klopp’s works.
Going for the signature of the former Sevilla man isn’t worth all the trouble, just because he hasn’t done enough of recent to deserve such a transfer.
Since the beginning of 2016-17, Kondogbia has only played 7 games as a starter and come off the bench once in the Serie A. He hasn’t been considered good enough to play for them in Europe. Of all his appearances, Inter managed 2 victories, drew 3 and lost the other 3.
The only worthwhile contributions he made in all these games was creating 1 assist and earning 3 yellow cards. For someone playing in such an important role, winning just 1 aerial duel per game on an average thus far is as poor as it comes.
He averages just 2 defensive actions per game, has won 10 of attempted 34 tackles and managed to make 3 key passes so far.
His average pass accuracy (88%) , top notch dribbling qualities (19 completed take-ons in 22 attempts) and physical strength are the only things that are left of his once-promising immense qualities.
His stats since his days at Sevilla to the moment aren’t particularly the most impressive. And Kondogbia’s super dribbling abilities and showboating aren’t needed right now in Liverpool.
Peradventure, Klopp doesn’t trust 2 relatively inexperienced youngsters and one error-prone veteran enough to serve as backups to Henderson and would want more power and physical presence injected into his midfield, looking elsewhere than Kondogbia’s side for the solution would be a better thing to do.
Taking a gamble on a player who sincerely can still realise his potentials and talents might not be the right thing to do at this point of the season. If Liverpool really needs another defensive midfielder, a Geoffrey Kondogbia is far from the best choice.