According to an earlier report from Daily Star, Liverpool were keen on signing Brazilian playmaker Alex Texeira from Shakhtar Donetsk.
The Reds had the 28-year-old on their shop list after Jurgen Klopp took over the reins from Brendan Rodgers at Anfield but failed with a £24.5 million bid in 2016.
The Brazilian creative ace subsequently snubbed a move to the Premier League and completed a mega money £38 million to Chinese Super League club Jiangsu Suning.
Texeira was one of the big stars at Shakhtar Donetsk and helped his club stamp their authority over rivals Dynamo Kyiv in the Ukrainian Premier League, winning the domestic title five times over the course of his illustrious career in the top flight.
The Brazilian amassed a mammoth 89 goals and 25 assists from 223 appearances across all competitions for Shakhtar, making him one of the most distinguished players in Ukraine. To add to that, he has an equally impressive record in the UEFA Champions League, scoring 11 goals and providing 4 assists from 41 appearances in the competition.
The 28-year-old has hit the ground running in the Chinese Super League as well, scoring 45 goals and registering 27 assists from 102 appearances across all competitions.
To put things into perspective, Liverpool should definitely reignite their interest in the Brazilian playmaker. Jurgen Klopp was on a spending spree in the summer and became the highest spending manager in the Premier League.
Klopp splashed the cash to bolster the midfield with the likes of Xherdan Shaqiri, Faninho and Naby Keita and he should be relieved that each of his summer recruits has had some impact so far in the season.
Phillipe Coutinho’s mega-money move to Barcelona last season left Liverpool short of options for the No.10 role. Even though Naby Keita and Xherdan Shaqiri, in particular, have been pretty impressive in the midfield, the Reds haven’t found an ideal replacement for Coutinho. As a result, Liverpool have missed that much-needed creative spark in the final third.
Jurgen Klopp’s men are yet to be beaten in the Premier League this season and are currently within striking distance of table-toppers Manchester City. However, the Reds haven’t had the best of times in the Champions League this season, losing out to PSG, Napoli and Red Star Belgrade.
And lack of creativity in the midfield has been the major cause of their undoing in recent weeks, further documenting the need for a specialist No.10 in the squad.
Alex Texeira is a technically-gifted and tactically versatile central attacking midfielder whose main attributes are his crisp passing, vision and subtle movement in the final third. Standing at 5ft. 8 inches, Texeira combines his low centre of gravity with his nimble feet to work his way past the defenders, creating his own space by making sharp turns to open up those half spaces.
The 28-year-old is adept at working the channels in the final third with his quick and incisive passing and has a good eye for goal, making him a prolific goalscorer as well to go with his playmaking abilities. Furthermore, he is a set-piece specialist has a deadly right foot that is capable of curling the ball past the goalkeeper from direct free-kicks.
That said, Liverpool need more depth in their squad to stop the overreliance on the likes of Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah and Alex Texeira would definitely be the right man to provide cover and competition for their best players.