Liverpool reportedly decided not to sign Timo Werner in the summer and his struggles justify that decision. It’s more than just his lack of goals, though.
Liverpool made a tough decision to not sign Timo Werner this year. Sky Sports say they couldn’t justify his £50m release clause – but Chelsea could.
That was always likely to put pressure on the Reds. They courted him for a very, very long time to the point where it got quite tiresome covering it all.
Will they? Won’t they? In the end, it was just a relief that we got an answer – Liverpool don’t want to pay that kind of money for Werner.
Now, as we’ve covered before, it turned out to be a good thing as they signed Diogo Jota down the line. It’s hard to imagine they’d ever have signed both.
But right now, it seems like it was simply a good decision to not sign Werner – Jota or no Jota. The German just isn’t the right fit.
Centre-piece
Werner isn’t scoring many goals, which is supposedly his best trait. He’s only got four in the Premier League, in fact.
Two of those came against Southampton in a 3-3 draw – the Blues can safely say he earned them a point there. But his other two came in comfortable wins over Burnley and Sheffield United.
Those aren’t goals you pay £50m for. In his last nine games, Werner has no goals in his last nine, although he has provided two assists.
But it’s more than that. Liverpool never wanted a pure centre-forward but someone versatile enough to cover the entire forward line.
They eventually found Jota to do that perfectly. Werner could have been the option there, though, and he’s showing he’s not up to it.
Werner has started 12 games in the Premier League and Champions League on the wing, for instance. He has four goals, two assists in that time.
Those goals included the ones against Burnley and Sheffield United, as well as a brace against Rennes in a 3-0 win.
For comparison, he’s started five as a striker. That’s led to three goals, two assists – by far a superior record that includes his brace against Southampton. That game against the Saints is far and away his best in Blue.
So not only is Werner struggling to impact games, he’s not proving to be particularly versatile, either. It suggests Liverpool would have had to choose between him and Roberto Firmino, rather than playing both.
That all means that even in isolation, he doesn’t seem right for Liverpool.
Certainly not £50m worth of player, anyway. We have to say, Liverpool come out of this one looking entirely justified right now.
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