Monday, June 18, 2012

KOP News # 1318

Liverpool Transfer News: Reds Reportedly Want Raul Garcia of Atletico Madrid

By

Shubbankar Singh

(Correspondent) on June 16, 2012

A new manager often means new signings and a change of philosophy. Brendan Rodgers will bring in the tiki-taka to Liverpool and maybe the impressive Gylfi Sigurdsson. Besides Sigurdsson, the Reds are also reportedly tracking a Spanish midfielder.

According to the Daily Mail, Liverpool has been linked with a £6.5 million move for Raul Garcia of Athletico Madrid. Liverpool had a plethora of options for the midfield last season and Kenny Dalglish dispensed with arguably two of the most creative players the Reds possessed.

This season, Liverpool do need to improve at midfield vastly, and bringing in more than one quality midfielder shall not be an issue. Such a stance would definitely indicate that at least one of the present midfield personnel of Charlie Adam, Jay Spearing and Jordan Henderson might be dispensed with if not two.

Raul Garcia would be a good improvement on what Liverpool presently possesses. Further, at £6.5 million it will surely be a steal. Statistically, Garcia has contributed 11 goals and nine assists since the start of 2011. Most of these contributions have been for Osasuna, the team Garcia has been loaned to by Athletico Madrid.

Osasuna finished an impressive seventh this previous season. It is up to Brendan Rodgers to see whether Garcia will fit in his plans or not. Although, going by his style of play and the fact that he is Spanish, he should not have much trouble adapting to the "tiki-taka." Garcia will be coming from a team that played a different style but that does not mean that he will not be able to change towards a style that suits him better.

His good upper body strength holds him in good stead to compete with a physically demanding environment and endure challenges that one encounters in the Premier League. He is comfortable on the ball and is not robbed as often as Charlie Adam. He likes to shoot and is a typical box-to-box midfielder that the Reds can do with.

Is Raul Garcia a great buy at the price mentioned?

·  yes

75.6%

·  no

24.4%

Total votes: 990

At Osasuna, he was involved with attacks more often than not. His good stats do not speak the entire story. He was also responsible for assisting on a number of assists, which means making the pass just before the assist. With the debacle in terms of transfers that occurred last season, I believe the Liverpool fans will not only be relieved, but will be actually beginning to get excited with the names that Liverpool is linked with this summer.

Moreover, it will be the prices that are being presumed to be the evaluation of such players that the Reds will eventually spend that must be bringing a sigh of relief to the fans as well as the owners. If Sigurdsson and Garcia do come to Liverpool, I think there will be no short of expectations from Brendan Rodgers this season.

I will reiterate that Raul Garcia is a very good player and is not in the Euro 2012 squad only because of the daunting midfield sextet of Xavi, Fabregas, Silva, Iniesta, Busquets and Alonso. If he were playing for Real Madrid or Barcelona, he would surely have been there. If Rodgers does pull off this signing, it will allay the previously raised fears of him not being able to attract world class players.   

 

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