Liverpool want to sign Perr Schuurs.
The Ajax defender is only 21-years-old but he’s already racked up a fair amount of experience for a centre-back of his age. Schuurs has played 93 senior games for Fortuna Sittard and Ajax, and has featured six times in the Champions League.
Reports have indicated that Liverpool are willing and ready to pay the £27 million that it would take to tempt the Amsterdam side to sell one of their brightest young talents.
With Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez on the long-term injury list and only the horribly unreliable Joel Matip and Fabinho (who is normally a defensive midfielder) as the senior centre-backs, turning to the market in January makes sense.
That price might seem expensive for someone who has only played 19 Dutch top flight games and has no senior international experience under his belt, but it fits with the model that sporting director Michael Edwards likes.
There’s no danger that Liverpool wouldn’t recoup that money, plus a profit, if they wanted to sell Perr Schuurs in the future. He will get better under Jurgen Klopp, gain the experiences that buyers like, and received a first-class coaching indication.
But what’s he like as a player? Playing for Ajax, he does a fair amount of work on the ball and would fit in with the basic ethos that Klopp employs in his team.
According to SmarterScout, Schuurs has got pretty comparable characteristics to van Dijk and Matip. All three are decent at building play out from the back, and can disrupt and recover the ball well.
With a score of 93/99 for his link-up play, Schuurs is better than van Dijk (88) and Matip (67), but that’s the only area in which the 21-year-old is statistically superior.
He retains the ball at a good rate, although his aerial ability will need to be worked on. A decent score for ground duels out of possession show that Schuurs is a man who can stick his boot in when required.
Coming from the Eredivisie to the Premier League is a huge leap, and we’ve seen Sepp van den Berg struggle with the transition. Van den Berg is another defender who played first team games when he was very young – he made 22 Eredivisie appearances for PEC Zwolle when he was just 16.
Schuurs is older, has played more senior games and has played at a higher level. There are obvious areas for improvement, but some clear areas where he’s good. This would be a very interesting move for Liverpool to make.