How Marko Grujic lacks skillset to have Liverpool future
Liverpool midfielder Marko Grujic won’t ever possess the skillset required to have an Anfield future under Jurgen Klopp.
At least, that’s the conclusion reached by the Echo as the newspaper analyzed Grujic and his performances across two different loan spells.
The young Serbian was at Cardiff City for the second half of the 2017/2018 campaign and has spent the entire of this season at Hertha Belin, where he’s played 10 Bundesliga games.
Grujic did pick up an injury which hampered his Berlin season, but he has been a regular part of the team while available.
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Standing at 6” 3’ tall and heavier than anyone else in the Liverpool squad, the youngster is a physical player who can impose himself around the field. The Echo found that he’s got a high expected goals per 90 minutes (xG) rating, the sixth best in the Hertha squad where the top five are all attackers.
But, Grujic is weak when required to track back and appears to not have the work ethic required by Klopp of his whole team. The Serb is poor at winning defensive duels and despite scoring two goals, is yet to register an assist.
According to the analysis, he’s a similar type of footballer to Marouane Fellaini and Sergej Milinković-Savić. Both of these are bigger players who can get forward and score goals, but are unlikely to create them.
As it appears, Grujic is a technically good midfielder who can use his size to overpower the opposition. But he either lacks the fitness or work ethic to be effective in defense and attack, while he’s yet to develop the ability to create chances.
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Klopp likes players who can perform an all-round role, and the youngster currently lacks that skillset. The CIES Football Observatory thinks Grujic is worth €4.1million, while Transfermakt has him at £10.80m, but either way you’d back Michael Edwards to negotiate a deal that rendered a profit on the £6.30m that Liverpool paid for player in 2016.