Liverpool FC Forum

Wow didn't expect we had it in us to get a short-term fix. I mean, it was the most logical thing to do especially for our CB problem as I already said a few times, but we don't usually do this. Now we have the finances to go for a long-term target for other positions.

Not sure how good he'll end up being for us but this is a smart move IMO.

At least we got someone in, it would have been suicidal to go into the new season with just the 4 we had on our books, especially given the rock at the heart of our defence has reached an age where a lot of players start thinking about retiring and Leoni and Gomez will be injury write off's for much of the campaign.
This Uruguayan lad is 27 which is exactly the age profile we needed, because positional sense, an ability to read the game and being 'street-wise' are such big parts of playing the position well a CB's prime years arrive a bit later than other players and this lad is right at the beginning of his 27-32 CB prime.

Ronald Araujo details emerge
Mundo Deportivo report that Liverpool have a agreed a £47.1m option-to-buy inserted into Ronald Araujo's loan agreement with Barcelona.

The Uruguayan defender has not travelled with the Barcelona squad for their pre-season friendly against Nottingham Forest and will travel to Liverpool for a medical tomorrow.

He is referred to in some quarters as the Darwin Nunez of defence...

Yeah hearing his injury prone, Barca fans seem to be happy his out. Many say he "was" good but last year half he has withered away. Lets hope he gets his mojo back with us, maybe it is the change that he needs.

From what I pieced together, he got a red card and the fans turned on him. He then suffered depression and withdrew from the team, so maybe he needed a fresh start. Scores highly in terms of holding the ball and aerial duels but probably a little rash. On paper it seems a fantastic “moneyball” move as his stock is much lower than his skill.

I’m a bit concerned about us signing fringe players from our European rivals. Neither Araujo or Barcola were first team regulars last year.

Are they going to improve us?

A change of scenery can often transform a player, look at that McTominay, he's a different player in Italy. The lad is exactly what we need, 27 which is right at the beginning of his 27-32 CB prime, unlike Leoni and Jacquet he's got 200+ appearances under his belt at a massive club, he's captained Barcelona which is nothing to be sniffed at, he's 6'3 and particularly known in Spain for being good in the air in both boxes plus he's South American/Uruguayan and has, as Aussie rugby commentators say, a bit of mongrel about him meaning he's up for a scrap which will make a nice change given how passive most of our squad are. Neither Luis or Darwin were the types to go missing in Goodison derbies and given where he's from i expect this lad will be the same.
He's got all the incentive in the world to do the business here, he's playing in the most popular league on the planet, he's about to become a household name everywhere, he's got a year to prove he's good enough and if he does Virgil cant go on forever, the best years of his career are going to coincide with us needing a new leader at the back, if he does the business for us he could be here for nearly the next decade, Virgil was only a year younger [26] when he arrived 9 years ago.
Profile wise the club have knocked it out the park, they've ticked every box, its up to the lad himself now but you dont go from South America straight to Barcelona or Real Madrid without having a bit about you. His game may suit English football perfectly, footy is definitely a game of horses for courses, stats wise apart from winning the vest majority of his headers he gets dribbled around something like 0.75 times per game meaning he's very good in one-on-one situations, by all accounts Barca used to move him to right back to mark Vini Jnr in El Classico's and Vini rated him as his toughest opponent, apparently he's very conservative with his passing [side to side] which let him down at Barca but thats no biggie here, we are looking for different things in a defender than they are, they considered his out-and-out defending excellent which is more important to us, sounds exactly what we need tbh. Welcome to the best club on the planet Ronnie lad.