Jurgen Klopp has been impressed with Ozan Kabak this season. The Liverpool boss picked out two times the 21-year-old really shone for the club.
Will Ozan Kabak still be at Liverpool next season? We really don’t know yet. There’s the option, of course, for the Reds to make his loan permanent for around £18m.
But there are a few factors at play. Firstly, how high do they rate the player? Secondly, who are their other options?
For us, that second one is particularly important. We’re not entirely sure Liverpool see Kabak as their best possible option. Especially when, arguably, he hasn’t quite outshone Nat Phillips.
And Phillips, of course, wouldn’t cost the club a penny to have as a fourth-choice option next season. But even then, reports that Liverpool could spend £30m on Ibrahima Konate don’t sound good for Kabak, either.
What isn’t in doubt, though, is that Liverpool do rate him highly. You only need to hear Jurgen Klopp talk about Kabak to get that.
Jurgen Klopp talks Ozan Kabak
Klopp briefly discussed Kabak’s time at the club thus far in his press conference on Friday. He spoke highly of the 21-year-old, while picking out a couple of games that seriously impressed him.
“Ozan was absolutely incredible, he did a great job and not to forget he is a young, young, young boy with incredible experience already,” he said, per Liverpoolfc.com.
“He was in different clubs, moved early from Turkey to Germany. Played in two big clubs in Germany in difficult situations, which is obviously not his fault.
“We could all see when he arrived here he needed a little bit of time to adapt. Then he played super games for us; I don’t want to pick any games out, but the two Leipzig games were absolutely incredible if you think how good Leipzig can be.”
Klopp went on to say that they haven’t made any decisions on players and time will tell what they do. It sounds as though he wouldn’t exactly be disappointed to have Kabak as an option next season.
His performances against RB Leipzig, given how little time he had to prepare with the team, were fantastic. And no matter what happens, we can say Kabak’s time with the club has been a success.
Whether that means a permanent transfer, though, we just don’t know.
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