Watch the must-see Emre Can moment from Porto draw
Liverpool hosted Portuguese side Porto in the last 16 of the Champions League and held them to a 0-0 draw.
After demolishing them 5-0 in the away leg, all Jurgen Klopp’s team had to do was stop The Dragons from scoring five times. Simple.
And they pulled off this fairly basic requirement with ease, ending the match with the impressive aggregate lead fully intact.
German midfielder Emre Can started and played 80 minutes of the game as he remains an important part of Klopp’s team, despite his current contract situation.
Can showed that he isn’t just a hard working defensive unit with a wonderful nutmeg of Andre Andre, which led to Roberto Firmino being fed the ball. Watch the video below!
The former Bundesliga man has been used in a more defensive role this campaign and has started to grow into it, which only increases the fears that he’ll leave the side a much poorer outfit if Can decided to depart at the end of his contract.
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From his 22 league starts and two substitute appearances, the 23-year-old has scored three goals and registered four assists – along with a WhoScored rating of 7.35. This is already more creative than last campaign, where Can managed three assists, but is two goals behind his 2016/2017 showing.
However, the German has shown a solid progression and his last two campaigns have been vast improvements on his first two, which gleaned just two goals and zero assists between them.
These little twists and tricks show that Can can do both sides of the game well and emphasizes how important the midfielder is to Liverpool. Klopp should now be trying extra hard to get the player to commit to the side over the next few years so he continue his progression at Anfield.
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But in light of that, a short term approach will need to be taken – starting with the Manchester United game on Saturday. Win that, then we can start thinking about contracts again.