Ray Houghton has told Liverpool to sign Serie A duo Federico Chiesa and Fabian Ruiz instead of some stars linked with a move to the club.
Liverpool are linked with various players to be signed for next season. A midfielder and a couple of wide attackers are expected to arrive at the club after the current season ends, as Jurgen Klopp looks to refresh his options.
The futures of established forwards remain uncertain as Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino’s contracts end in 2023, while extensions are yet to be agreed upon. Jude Bellingham, Adama Traore, Jarrod Bowen and Luis Diaz are linked with a move to Anfield, although Ray Houghton via Betting Expert (h/t Liverpool Echo) suggests two more names and urged the club to sign them instead.
Houghton believes Serie A duo Federico Chiesa and Fabian Ruiz could be the perfect players for the Reds and asked the club to launch moves for the Juventus and Napoli stars.
Chiesa, linked with a move to Anfield, impressed the former Liverpool midfielder enough for him to say thoughtful words on the Euro 2020 winner. Houghton said, “There’s a lad who I like, and that’s Chiesa at Juventus. He’s all-action, creator, goalscorer. He’d certainly be a player I wouldn’t mind having at Liverpool.
“The other 2 (Jarrod Bowen and Luiz Diaz), they’ve got talent there’s no doubt about it but whether they can handle the pressure of playing day in and day out for Liverpool? You don’t know.”
Further, he assessed the qualities of Ruiz, suggesting the Spaniard could be an ideal alternative for Jordan Henderson. The Napoli star also remains linked with a move to Liverpool and is a box-to-box player similar to the current club captain.
Houghton said, “I watched a bit of Fabian Ruiz, and he’s quite a tall, leggy lad. What I liked about him is he’s a left-footer. You don’t see that enough of that around. You’ve got a lot of right footers playing on the left-hand side and the natural thing for them to do is come inside and they narrow the pitch up.”
“What I say to you is this: Liverpool, the way they play, with their front 3, the midfielders are not what I would call box-to-box players. They are side-to-side players because when the full backs go up forward, the midfielders have to go sideways to defend. It’s not all about going in straight lines up and down the pitch.”
“So when you’re looking at midfielders, you got to look for can he go side-to-side, can he get on the ball, technically is he good enough, has he got the vision and awareness to get it to the front men because that’s where Liverpool does most of the work to win football matches.”
Given that both Chiesa and Ruiz have, at some point, been linked with Liverpool, it will be interesting to see if they heed Houghton’s advice and go after the Serie A duo in the summer.
