With Jamie Carragher's retirement a few days away priority has been given to finding a player who can step up and take up the mantle left by the departing defender.
Since Carragher openly admitted that it was time to hang up his boots and step of the field the internet has been abuzz over speculation as to who could be in the door to take his place on Liverpool's backline. Names like Ashley Williams, Toby Alderweireld, Raul Albiol & more recently Tiago Ilori have all been doing the rounds, but there seems to be a flutter of information nobody has seemingly mentioned yet.
Kyriakos Papadopoulos is a name that many who follow German football will know as one of Schalke's no nonsense centre backs and at the age of 21 is already a regular in the Greek National side.
Although currently sidelined with a knee injury, he is expected to make his return in time for pre-season training, but in his 10 games this season Papadopoulos has scored one goal has a pass success rate of 89% and a whopping 83% of attempted duels have gone his way.
Now he certainly fits the FSG model of buying young and experienced players with a potential high re-sale value and from seeing him play this season you can see that he's quick, agile, aggressive in the tackle and demonstrates leadership qualities ..... all traits that will appeal to Brendan Rodgers.
Guardian contributor Tor-Kristian Karlsen has tweeted bits of info on the player:
"Nice transfer coup for Liverpool if they manage to land Kyriakos Papadopoulos (centre back, born 92, Schalke 04, Greece national team)"
"Liverpool interest is concrete. Has been on the shortlist/highly rated by many European top clubs (incl. Chelsea, Man City, Man Utd)"
This should be taken with a pinch of salt as I’m not saying this will happen but seeing people within the sport putting out info and tit-bits on the player can only be taken as positive.
Could Papadopoulos be the man to replace Jamie Carragher at the heart of Liverpool's defence?
Source: DSG
