Neil Jones, a reliable source for Liverpool news, has explained why he believes Konrad Laimer was a subject of interest for Liverpool once they had decided a midfielder would be needed at the club due to the injury crisis.
“I think it was Konrad Laimer he [Klopp] was talking about. I did report that the day before the window closed that Liverpool had given up on Laimer. He ticked a lot of boxes,” the reporter told Redmen TV.
“He had a year left on his contract so it all fed into this. I don’t think he was target number one, two or three in the summer, but as it developed they thought it could be a nice little deal and a deal that works and he may have been cheap enough to justify it.
“His agent had a relationship with Keita and Mane so there was a lot of parts to it, but the vibe was that Leipzig weren’t after selling him and the player himself had decided to sit on his contract and join Bayern next summer.”
Laimer is one of the hottest properties in terms of midfielders in the Bundesliga and there are many reasons for it.
He only accumulated 11 goal contributions from midfield last season but that's not the most accurate representation of his skill set.
Some of his most impressive traits are his ability to press and tackle, being a player in the 99th percentile for the former and 87th for the latter.
Another key aspect of his game is his ability to get the ball up the pitch. He's very positive with the ball and his completed dribbles and progressive carries back that up.
He likes to occupy spaces within the opposition penalty box regularly and has one of the highest non-penalty expected goals and assists of all midfielders in the top five leagues of Europe. He averages 0.23 assists per game, which is also one of the highest in Europe for players in his position.
Here are some of the players he is similar to, as per FBREF, including Bellingham and Keita:
