£17million Brajan Gruda is on the Reds’ radar

Liverpool are eyeing a £17m wonderkid who is currently thriving in Germany. They could catch him this summer.

Sport Bild claim that Liverpool are one of a number of clubs currently eyeing Mainz talent Brajan Gruda. The 19-year-old has just enjoyed his first senior season.

It was an impressive one too. Gruda started 19 Bundesliga matches, making 28 appearances in total. Those minutes bought about four goals and three assists from a midfield/right attacking position (Mainz essentially play 3-4-3, so Gruda has a role Liverpool don’t really have).

Good numbers from Gruda, who is also interested in Bayer Leverkusen, Aston Villa and Newcastle United. The report claims he could be snapped up from Mainz for around £17m.

It’s a sum that could prove to be quite a bargain given the prices for young players these days.

Liverpool as Brajan Gruda

Gruda is an exceptional talent when running with the ball and that could be what attracts Liverpool the most here. FBref compares him to other wingers/attacking midfielders in Europe’s top five leagues and the teenager is in the 97th percentile for take-ons per 90 minutes.

Mohamed Salah, by comparison, is in the 22nd percentile, and Luis Diaz – who usually excels at dribbling – is only in the 79th. In other words, Gruda is truly brilliant at takeovers.

Liverpool will then want to see if they can take that talent and develop the right end product to go with it. If he can, Gruda could become an incredibly dangerous player.

So with that in mind, £17m feels like a potential steal – but it’s also a risk. After all, Gruda doesn’t have that much history to go on, having only played one season of senior football, starting just over half of the league games.

Liverpool also have quite a few players in form. Harvey Elliott, for example, plays a very similar position and isn’t any older.

So there’s definitely some thinking that needs to go into this. But Garda is an attractive talent, and one that may be worth a little risk.