World-class Liverpool target is absolutely worth the reported £75m, Klopp can justify it – RTK View

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Inter star Nico Barella is worth the reported £75m they’d want for him. Liverpool can justify if they wish to.

There’s plenty of talk right now that Liverpool need a new midfielder. It’s understandable, too – Thiago is out for six weeks and the Reds look light. Naby Keita was out at the weekend, along with Curtis Jones, too, as was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

That left Jurgen Klopp with 36-year-old James Milner and 19-year-old Harvey Elliott to choose from as a replacement. Maybe 19-year-old Fabio Carvalho. You see the problem. Liverpool could use with a player or two in that bracket between ‘veteran’ and ‘teenager’.

In fact, Keita, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jones are Liverpool’s only midfielders in that bracket. None of them are reliably fit and the elder two are both out of contract in 2023. There’s also Fabinho, of course, but he’s the squad’s only natural holding midfielder, rather than a potential player for the slightly more advanced roles.

Thus the question isn’t really whether or not Liverpool need a midfielder. It’s whether they need one right now and that can only really be answered by the available players. The Reds could really use Jude Bellingham right now but he’s not available.

What Nico Barella could be worth to Liverpool

Jurgen Klopp said at the weekend that any transfer must make sense ‘now and in the long-term’. That means such a player needs to be both capable of playing right now but still young enough that he’s around for a while.

That latter part is important – Liverpool are essentially shopping for someone who can replace Henderson and Thiago. And that’s why Nico Barella might be a player worth looking at.

The Reds have been linked before, of course, and the Mirror claims they’ve scouted him for years. They also say that Barella would cost at least £75m.

That’s an awful lot of money but Barella is worth that. He’s one of the world’s best midfielders on his day but also a wonderful fit for Liverpool. Not only can he operate as a traditional midfielder – as someone like Henderson does – but he’s a more advanced variant.

We believe that Klopp is moving towards a more attacking midfield and Barella could be the perfect next step in that regard. He’s someone who generates assists en masse but isn’t an out-and-out no.10.

And at 25, Barella is in his prime years while also being young enough to contribute over an entire five or six-year contract. That, to us, seems like the ideal Klopp wants.

£75m is a large price to pay, certainly, but Barella is worth that. Liverpool would get all they want from a new midfielder and he’d essentially solve their problems on his own. We won’t hold our breath but we do think the Reds could justify it.