27 Apr 2013

'El Flaco' to Anfield? £9m Argentina star who favours LFC will 'consider offers'. Bid...?

Liverpool have been linked with a number of central defenders over the last couple of months, including Modibo Diakite and Ashley Williams, and with the Jamie Carragher and Martin Skrtel seemingly on the way out, summer reinforcements are definitely needed. In February, Spanish newspapers reported Liverpool's interest in Sevilla star Federico Fazio, and it now seems that the Argentina International is back on the Reds' radar.

According to reports in Italy today, Liverpool are still monitoring the 24-year old, who - according to his Agent Ariel Kiperszmid - is likely to move on during the upcoming transfer window. Kiperszmid told TMW:

"He [Fazio] may leaving Seville in the summer. He wants to try a new experience. We received several offers in winter and in June we will consider the many offers on the table.

"I can confirm that he has offers from Italy and England, but also from Germany and Russia"


Kiperszmid also confirmed that Sevilla turned down a €7m offer in January, which probably means the Spanish club will want more than that this summer.

In a recent interview, Fazio - who is nicknamed 'El Flaco' by Sevilla's fans - confirmed that he turned down a move to Zenit St Petersburg during the January transfer window, and made it clear that a move to Russia is off the agenda. He told Seville-based newspaper Estadio Deportivo:

"I would have gone [to Zenit] if the conditions of the offer have convinced me, but the truth is that things did not happen, so I decided to stay here. I want to play in the [English] Premier League, or in Germany or Italy. "

Sevilla are suffering major financial problems at the moment, and many of their players may be for sale as a result, including Fazio, who is apparently a 'long-term' Liverpool target.

In December, Sevilla president Jose Del Nido stated that the club would sell players to help balance a €15m loss, but in another interview in January, he seemed to contradict himself with a load of mixed message. He told Reporters:

“It is not mandatory to sell players. There have been offers for seven players in our first team. The seven have been rejected. Only if an off-market offer comes in for any player will they be sold today, tomorrow or the day after. There is no need to sell, but that does not mean that we won’t sell.”

Bundesliga clubs Hamburg and Hoffenheim are also interested in signing Fazio, but the Argentinian reportedly favours a move to Liverpool.

Fazio won the World Cup with Argentina U20 side in 2007, and followed that up in 2008 with an Olympic gold medal, as part of a team that included Lionel Messi, Angel Di Maria, Sergio Aguero and Ezequiel Lavezzi.

With the underwhelming performance of Liverpool's defenders this season, new blood is definitely required. Is Fazio a viable option?



Jaimie Kanwar


21 comments:

  1. imo we need to look closer to home we have kelly and wisdom who could cover for one of them and if we are getting rid of the two mentioned we need someone who is already used to the pace of the league so imo we should go all out for shawcross or someone like him

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  2. i agree we need a player who is use to the english pace but while i like shawcross you know stoke will add 5-15m to his actual value as he is almost the face of the whole club.
    would like to see Coates or Kelly have a real go in the off season though/

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  3. will depend on the manager thing too. Our defenders are very good just BR ruined them. His system doesn`t fit there style. If he is still here then yes we will need to find a defender which does fit his style. If he goes we might not be in such need, Maybe one to replace Carra but prior to BR our defense was epic. I can`t see they just lose that over night.

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  4. I'd like to know what people think about our set pieces. obviously they are sh*t but Agger seems to pick up a man before the kick and then let them go unmanned.
    I'd assume he's role would be to guard the space in front of Reina rather than the man.
    but incase im wrong, is it a scheme or has agger just forgetten how to defend set pieces?

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  5. I`m not sold on Coates and Kelly is injured to much for my liking as a direct replacement for anyone.

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  6. I dont think Shawcross would suit are style. We have a player like him in Skrtel and he struggles in our system. Its about getting the right player for the system while BR is here. Get rid of BR and i would agree

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  7. I`m guessing we use zonal now. We are shicking at set pieces and no one follows there man. There must be a reason for this. Defenders dont get poor over night so it must be orders from the boss.


    I would love to see how many of the goals we have let in came from set pieces compared to last season and season before. Then also same for how many we scored as we never score from them now.

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  8. I'm a wingback so I pay closer attention to our defence than I'd say most viewers. I agree with you and Matt. I think Rodgers is using a zonal system but when you analyse it, it's very poor. As always there are men on the posts, but IMO there should be at least 2 players standing along the 6 yard box, therefore most balls whipped in are headed straight out, and these 2 players (usually our best headers of the ball) don't have any other role, they should stand there and clear it. And then of course there are going to be other players in the box which have no option but to man mark, but I think Rodgers gets it all wrong. Sometimes I have seen Agger on the post, and Hendo usually marks the opponents big target men like Benteke, and there's only gonna be one winner there.

    But overall I think just less emphasis has been placed on defending by Rodgers. We attack so much that our fullbacks are way too far up the pitch and when we lose the ball Lucas and the centre backs are exposed, and this leads to errors etc.

    IMO teams like Arsenal, Swansea and Chelsea have the ability to play right through us because we have no defensive structure or anything.



    Except for van Persie...Attackers win you games but your defence + keeper win championships. Might be a bit unfair to BR, but I put poor defending down to him. Individual errors happen to every defender (Hummels v Real Madrid). Agger and Skrtel have made errors and have been blasted. Skrtel hasn't started in ages, for making one error. It's down to BR and his team.


    We need to build from the back.

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  9. I agree we have Wisdom, Kelly and even Sama to fill in. Coates may not be up to scratch, but we should certainly keep Skrtel. Big mistake if we sell him. I think we only need one CB signing. If Skrtel is deemed surplus to requirements, what the hell is Joe Allen?

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  10. I don't think Agger and co have had a defending lesson since Steve Clarke. Defending is shite. See my reply to Zanatos as to why.

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  11. completely agree and i just cant see how one of the best defenses in the league (ours) goes to being so poor over night.


    I get the idea of zonal, as end of the day attackers will always lose there man when man marking as they are making the first move, thus have that second advantage over the defender however like you said we do it badly. There isnt much of a system that looks in place anyway. I`m not over happy we are ruining great defenders and I don`t actually think any news ones will make a difference either. The system just isnt set up for defenders to do well.


    Look at Utd. On paper there team is just average. There is only a few players you would rate as world class in there team yet they blitzed the league this year. City on the other hand have a team and a spare team of world class players yet didn`t win the league. Why the Manager. Utd can score but more importantly they can defend. We always seem to be on the edge of letting a goal in. I never feel safe when watching us now. We do score more but it counts for nothing as we let in loads too.

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  12. Thats what i was thinking about the zone scheme we use.
    its quite a sloppy zone across the 6 yard box

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  13. For me Coates showed potential under dalglish, but under rodgers he seem very out of sorts and very easily beat.
    Kelly on the other hand i think will fit right into this defense, as for the injuries i think once he's not sprinting up and down the sideline the injuries hopefully will stop.

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  14. and what style would that be blind panic

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  15. not going to happen rodgers needs every point he can get starting today

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  16. supposedly worth 30m

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  17. boom boom! lol. We do have style and its very attacking. It may not be to your taste but we still have one. Defenders have to push up higher on the wings to aid the attack. This leaves the center very open for the counter. Which is what we have seen so many times. All us with the ball then boom one counter and a goal for the other team. Attacking football is great to watch but balance is always needed.

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  18. I hope they will stop too but I just think relying on him right now is risky. If they stop then great next season we can rely on him.

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  19. i,am not saying the players are bad imo it,s bad management

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