Liverpool missed out on the signing of Dutch winger Memphis Depay to rivals Manchester United in the summer. The blow was softened when Roberto was signed from Hoffenheim but there is an argument for why Depay would’ve been brilliant at Liverpool.
Memphis is a player who thrives in a system where there is a lot of emphasis on attacking. The issue is that Louis Van Gaal employs a very defensive style and this detracts from players like Depay who are brilliant attacking players. As such Depay has only scored 5 goals this season in 32 games.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe in attacking players having any less defensive responsibility than a full back. It’s just that under Van Gaal there is no impetus on converting defence into attack quickly. This resulted in Manchester United fans chanting,”attack, attack, attack,” earlier in the season.
Under Jürgen Klopp you can’t help but feel that Memphis would be superb with his pace in a pressing system. This pace would also have been mental on the break with the creative forces of Coutinho and Firmino to feed him alongside a rejuvenated and fully fit Daniel Sturridge.
Wishful thinking doesn’t get anyone anywhere but you can almost expect Klopp will recruit players of Memphis’ quality in the upcoming transfer window. Liverpool only just missed out on Alex Teixeira in the January window due to the extortionate requests from Shaktar Donetsk. The video below shows the quality that Memphis has and what Klopp would love to have at Anfield.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAZD-xqI_0g