14 Jan 2013

'I hope he stays' - LFC still chasing 'tremendous' €6m Brazilian. Time to bid?

Last week, Liverpool sent scouts to watch Brazilian striker Leo Batistao in action for Ray Vallecano in their 3-1 La Liga victory over Getafe. With Fabio Borini and Daniel Sturridge now in the squad, Brendan Rodgers has the luxury of being able to choose between three available strikers, but the club still arguably needs another goalscorer in the squad, and Baptistao would seem to be a viable option.

With six goals/six assists in sixteen starts, The 20-year old - who replaced Michu at Vallecano - has definitely hit the ground running at the Campo de Fútbol de Vallecas, and according to Sky Sports, the Spanish minnows are aware of Liverpool's interest:

"The likes of Liverpool and Wigan Athletic had representatives at the [Getafe] game, but Vallecano have not fielded any bids for Baptistao. Vallecano are aware that scouts have been watching the forward, but are hoping to hang on to Baptistao until the end of the season before making a decision on any offers".

After the Getafe game, fellow Vallecano striker, Piti, was full of praise for the youngster. He enthused:

"Leo is tremendous. He gives us a lot because he loves to beat players, score goals and more," said Piti in the Spanish media. The truth is we cannot ask for more off him, he can only continue to impress. He is very focused and wants be even better but I just hope that he stays with us all season."

Baptistão didn’t manage to get on the scoresheet against Getafe, but did set up the third and final goal in the 3-1 win, capping an impressive all round display.

€6m-rated Baptistão began his career at Associação Atlética Portuguesa in Brazil, where he played alongside coveted South American star Neymar. Rayo Vallecano snapped him up at the age of 16, and he went straight into the club's youth system.

Speaking to reporters after a recent victory over Real Mallorca, Rayo Vallecano boss Paco Jemez had some glowing words of praise for the budding star. He enthused:

“Leo is showing the category of player that he is. Not only is he on a roll but he’s enjoying himself and inspiring us. He’s a great player with a good future and we are here to help. It’s all happened for him at once, but he’s a smart guy.”

Some reports claim that Atletico Madrid have come to an agreement to sign Baptistao in the summer, but nothing is official yet, and anything can happen between now and the end of the season.

Worth a bid?



Jaimie Kanwar


42 comments:

  1. liverpool4life5655:54 pm, January 14, 2013

    I heard a defender called "forren" is booked in for a medical tomorrow 3 million.... He a left footed player :)

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  2. the likes of liverpool and wigan how fall have we fallen

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  3. norwiegien never heard of him 5 international caps

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  4. liverpool4life5656:03 pm, January 14, 2013

    He abit like agger, loves coming out with the ball and very composed with it. :)

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  5. sounds decent the proof will be in the pudding

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  6. liverpool4life5656:10 pm, January 14, 2013

    He looks it, hopefully he can carry that on in the prem, this will also let us give agger a rest. :)

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  7. If we (the Club) were a Transformer, would we be The Fallen?

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  8. if theres one called that we would

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  9. liverpool4life5657:02 pm, January 14, 2013

    Yeah, but Coates is young so send him out on loan, carra can fillin for skrtel.... :)

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  10. Yes - he was one evil mofo in one of the Transformers Movies (pretty good they were too).

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  11. Er , Carragher ?? I don't think so

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  12. liverpool4life5658:13 pm, January 14, 2013

    Carra has still got it.... He more wiser he may not have pace but he cuts out danger.

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  13. We don't need any more 'project' players. If a player isn't ready to step in and improve the first team immediately, I don't think we should be focusing on him atm.


    I want another experienced 24-26 year old forward to come in and contribute right now, not another kid that needs years to comes good.

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  14. Our forward line really is not that stacked still imo. Sterling and Borini should only be 'squad' players at this point and Downing is a deadweight.


    Eitherways, assuming that Suarez/Borini/Sturridge is the first choice attacking trio, with Sterling & Downing (:-( as backups, that still leaves us lacking another forward.


    We need another centre-forward asap.

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  15. Transformers 2 and 3 were terrible movies!

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  16. He might be a bright talent, but given that we have quite a few forwards on our books right now, we probably should sign any further forwards only if one of the current ones leaves at the same time.

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  17. On a side-note, I find it startling that on one hand many of our fans blame the scouting system/the manager for not looking abroad for cheaper options than Brits (often mentioned when Michu is discussed), but as soon as we get linked to someone who isn't a household name (and therefore cheaper) and whom another, lesser team might be after (Swansea in the case of Michu) claims are made that we sunk lowly. Could it be that there is no way pleasing some people.

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  18. There are even people out there claiming that he has been linked with the Manchester clubs. We truly have fallen very deep.

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  19. I reckon the more the better, provided we're sensible about it.

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  20. Looking abroad to uncover cheap talent is one thing.
    Looking abroad for yet more reserves is another.

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  21. I like to see Coates playing CDM.He is will be more effective from Lucas or allen

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  22. They weren't as bad as most people make out. There was just too much rubbish going on with the actual humans in the film(s). Prime is an absolute legend, though he is a lot more ruthless and violent in the films. Bit like Rafa - Optimus Benitez to return eventually?

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  23. MF is in dire straits. need a MF hardman. who can score goals from out of the box. We can look for another striker come May

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  24. Well, then I have to admit that I don't have the comprehensive knowledge that some others have, as we are linked to quite a few players I haven't heard of before. Therefore I didn't know that all the players we are looking at from abroad are no more than reserves players.

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  25. Currently we can pick from Suarez, Sterling, Downing, Borini, Suso, Assaidi, Sturridge for our front three. Four of them will miss out every week. Would it be sensible to make that five? And I didn't mention Pacheco because he looked much better at the top of a midfield three to me.

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  26. For my money Suarez & Sterling are the players we have of first team calibre players for a team with high aspirations.


    Borini, Assaidi & Sterling are squad players (i.e. preferably backup to a superior player), Downing is useless and Suso is a central midfielder who is done a disservice by being played out wide in a front 3. As is Pacheco.


    Just my opinion, but we are definitely lacking in forwards if we want to kick on any time soon. Matchwinners are more important than anything else, and we only have two, which explains our struggles to actually win games..

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  27. You probably meant Suarez & Sturridge, right.


    I'd like us to start them two most of the games, with Borini and Sterling rotating in the third slot. They may become very useful players soon.


    Well, I wouldn't be against bringing in someone who really makes a difference up front as long as we could offload Downing at the same time.

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  28. i'm just talking about strikers. downing, sterling, suso and assaidi are not strikers. we still need a better variety than three strikers, and we can't really rely on players like borini at the moment.

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  29. Really Liverpool have enough reasonable players to top up the squad what they need to do is to start getting top quality first 11 players i do not care if they only make 2 signings this year.

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  30. Yea, I defo meant Suarez and Sturridge - soz.

    Sterling is starting way more games than he should be at this point in his career, while he is a bright prospect but not actually yet a very productive player. 10 league starts would be more than enough for him and tbh I don't see Borini as worthy of much more than that either.

    Just to illustrate, there are 114 league starts available between the 3 forward slots - assuming that Sturridge and Suarez took up ~64 of those (32 league starts each), that would leave another 50 league starts to share between Sterling, Borini, Assaidi and the new forward.

    Sounds fair enough to me, but just drives home how important it is that we qualify for the Europa League again next year; in order that the 'fringe'/young players can continue to get the extra game time needed to develop further.

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  31. Then getting another striker in would make us having four players vying for one starting slot. Borini probably is third in that pecking order right now, so I personally don't worry about that. Think he will surprise a few people anyway.

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  32. Fair enough. Your calculation works if we don't consider Downing still a member of the club as soon as someone else came in.

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  33. Yep, I'm refusing to accept that Rodgers has been fooled by this minor uptick in Downings' form, and really has backed away from the promise to ship him out.


    If Downing is still playing a significant role for us after January, Rodgers' is just creating a rod for his own back.


    Two transfer windows is enough time to mould the team towards his image. The excuses expire once this window has closed and he needs to start delivering results.

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  34. I could understand if you said Agger (who is slightly underwhelming as a CB at present imo), but Coates as a DM?? :-/

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  35. Don't think that two transfer windows would be enough to stop our rot, to be honest, unless around 150m are thrown at the problem AND every signing finds his feet and delivers immediately.

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  36. Apparently Allen and Borini were bought because they knew the system and would hit the ground running... 

    It may not be a simple task of identifying the right players, but it is a lot easier than LFC (and many other clubs) make it look.

    Sturridge is one step in the right direction (imo). Buy a few more talented  players like him and we'll improve quickly. Buy a few more 'project' players and we'll have to wait.

    Eitherways,Rodgers needs to start delivering because in general we've given him a very easy ride so far and all benefit of the doubt over the failings of the last window

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  37. That's true, but I reckon our standard formation will include at least two of those 4 strikers (with sturridge and suarez pairing up to be the first choice starters). that leaves 2 other strikers. People like Jaimie and I think it couldn't hurt just to get one more striker for that extra depth and variety.

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  38. No, if two of the front three positions are occupied by Sturridge and Suarez, it leaves one free slot that will be given to one of Downing, Sterling, Borini, Assaidi and whom ever you'd like to add to that.

    If we constantly played 442, four out and out strikers would make sense, but as we rather play one striker and two wide forwards not so much.

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  39. Easy ride for Rodgers? I don't think so. Lets put it this way. He wasn't greeted with the same damnation as Hodgson, but even early on, before one ball has been kicked, some people were on his back. 

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  40. you know what, i've totally confused myself. you're right. 

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  41. Thumbs up for your honesty!

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