Liverpool are reportedly among the teams interested in a box-to-box midfielder whose playing style seems like a perfect fit for Arne Slot’s side.
Sign up to our newsletter for the most distinctive football content delivered direct to your inbox
Sign up
Thank you for signing up!
Did you know with an ad-lite subscription to 3 Added Minutes, you get 70% fewer ads while viewing the news that matters to you.
Submitting...
One of Arne Slot’s greatest successes over the course of Liverpool’s title-winning 2024/25 campaign was figuring out how to make a midfield which didn’t have a natural defensive midfielder work – but after a sluggish start to the new season, it’s not entirely surprising to see stories suggesting that the club are looking for ways to add some strength and depth to the middle of the park.
Between Alexis Mac Allister, Curtis Jones and Ryan Gravenberch, who came of age in deeply impressive fashion over the past year, Liverpool have moulded their midfield into a progressive, box-to-box unit which feels, when it’s ticking over at maximum efficiency, as though it’s effectively made up of two players working the Steven Gerrard role at the same time.
It’s a system that the former Anfield great would likely have thrived in – and now the Reds are supposedly one of the teams in the market for a midfield who’s doing plenty of his own thriving in Italy, and who has been compared favourably to Gerrard for his hard-running, well-rounded and penetrative playing style. But will Liverpool be able to get a deal for Khéphren Thuram over the line amidst fierce competition?
Why Liverpool are among the teams chasing Khéphren Thuram
TBR Football report that Liverpool are one of a few teams who have enquired about the Juventus midfielder over the summer, only to have their advances rebuffed – and the club’s name has come up in connection with the France international several times in the past. It looks increasingly like he’s become a long-term fixture on their shortlist.
The Gerrard comparison has cropped up with increasing frequency since he moved to Turin from OGC Nice last summer. He’s been outstanding in Serie A, contributing up and down the pitch, carrying the ball from one phase to the next with power and grace, and breaking opposing midfields open on and off the ball.
He doesn’t have Gerrard’s goalscoring knack, granted – he scored four and provided another five league goals last season - but the lung-busting running, the seemingly endless energy to track back and break up attacks and the accurate, penetrative passing game are all present enough. If the comparison is an exaggeration, it’s a small one.
In Gravenberch, Liverpool already have a midfielder who can play this role, of course, and Mac Allister’s conversion from a number ten to a box-to-box man has been remarkably effective, but Jones isn’t as strong on the defensive side for all his technical poise and there isn’t really another player in the team who can do the same job, with all due respect to the redoubtable Wataru Endo.
As such, Thuram would offer a combination of quality and depth that’s hard to pass up on and would reduce Liverpool’s reliance on Gravenberch and Mac Allister across a long season. There are just two problems – plenty of other teams seem to want to buy Thuram, and Juventus don’t want to sell.
Why it will be challenging for Liverpool to sign Thuram amid Chelsea & Spurs interest
While stories which suggest that most of the top half of the Premier League table are watching the same player can be hard to credit, that same TBR Football story alleges that Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea are all keen and all approached Juventus to enquire as to whether Thuram was available.
Arsenal have signed Martín Zubimendi and Christian Nørgaard now, which should sat their appetite for midfielders for now, but Spurs are desperate to find a new central midfielder and Chelsea reportedly want to add some depth too, to reduce their own reliance on the same two high-end central midfielders. Should there be a sniff of a chance to sign Thuram, it would be no shock to see both in the bidding alongside Liverpool.
The bigger problem is simply that Juventus don’t seem to want to sell. Liverpool and their rivals may have made enquiries, but it sounds as if they were shut down at speed. Thuram has been so impressive since signing that the Old Lady supposedly want to rebuild their team around him and Kenan Yildiz, the young Turkish winger who has become a gossip column staple in recent months.
Juventus haven’t won the league – or even come particularly close – for five years, but see in the pair the building blocks of their next great team. Furthermore, both Thuram and Yildiz are under contract until 2029, meaning that they hold most of the leverage.
But Premier League spending power speaks at volume, and Juventus aren’t in the best financial position. They lost a reported €50m (£43.5m) last year and are not in a position to ignore too many chances to sell talented young assets. Eventually, they could be compelled to let Thuram go, or at least to choose between their two great hopes for the future.
If that happens, it’s fair to expect Liverpool to be in the bidding for Thuram. His playing style seems likely to fit Slot’s system remarkably well, his performances have been exceptionally, and he has plenty of years ahead of him. Perhaps he will be Liverpool’s second Steven Gerrard one day after all.