Liverpool have been linked with a transfer move for Inter Milan star Marcelo Brozovic, but who is the player and why do we want him?
According to reports, the Croatian has an attractive release clause in his contract and that has lead Liverpool to make contact with the footballer’s agent.
The 27-year-old spent his formative years playing for clubs in his homeland, starting things off with Hrv Dragovoljac before moving to NK Lokomotiva for £270,000. He was this Lokomotiva for just one season and then Dinamo Zagreb stepped up with a £2.16 million bid for Marcelo Brozovic,
Brozovic spent around 18 months with Zagreb and then moved on loan to Inter Milan before the Serie A giants made the move permanent six months later. They paid a combined £7.2 million for the player, said Transfermarkt.
But he’s now made 186 appearances for Inter, scoring 23 goals and providing 22 assists – a pretty good turnaround for someone who cost them less than £10 million and could be sold for five times that amount.
So it’s clear he’s not really a creative or destructive player, but what else is he good at?
Using Smarter Scout, it’s shown that this is a player who doesn’t get robbed of the ball very well.
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With ball retention at 73/99, Marcelo Brozovic is a man who doesn’t lose it under pressure very much and we can see that with his 71 rating for ground duels in possession.
But apart from that, there isn’t much else that sticks out about the Croatian’s game. 74 for link ups is good, but it’s not necessarily something you’d expect from a defensive midfielder – which maybe means he’s more than just a destroyer?
Well, yes and no. Brozovic has got fairly poor ratings for recovery and disruption and is poor in the air. Dribbling and receiving in the box are average, too.
Curiously, the Inter man has got an excellent attacking output but has scored just three non-penalty goals.
However, six assists and a 90% successful pass rate is excellent and would fit well with the role Jurgen Klopp asks their midfielders to play.
With an expected assist score of 2.1, it might indicate that Inter’s forwards are finishing at an unusually high rate.
This is a man who plays as a defensive midfielder but doesn’t necessarily do the things we’d expect a defensive midfielder to do.
His tackling is okay, recovery poor but passing is excellent. So Brozovic wouldn’t take Fabinho out of the side but could compliment Jordan Henderson or Georginio Wijnaldum well.