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This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…
Per journalist Pietro Balzano Prota, Liverpool have interfered with Manchester United’s negotiations to sign Sporting’s Bruno Fernandes.
The Portuguese midfielder has become one of the best creative players in Europe, boasting fantastic stats for both goals and assists in 2018/19.
In 33 Liga NOS outings, he scored 20 goals and racked up a further 13 assists from the middle of the park. It was a phenomenal return for someone who now looks as though he could be on his way to the Premier League.
Liverpool don’t need much going into the new campaign but you feel as though the 24-year-old could be the missing piece of the jigsaw.
Why? Because the 5 ft 10 ace can produce a goal threat and sense of creativity from a central area that hasn’t been seen at Anfield since a certain Philippe Coutinho departed the club.
The Brazilian would often drift into central areas from the left-hand side and pop up with strikes on a regular basis. In his final full season at Liverpool, he scored a total of 13 Premier League goals, featuring as both an attacking midfielder and a left winger.
His position out wide has now been taken over but the goal threat he produced from the middle of the pitch arguably hasn’t been replaced.
As such, the addition of Fernandes could be game-changing.
Coutinho’s final full campaign saw him average 3.4 shots per game in the league, but if you compare that to Sporting’s main creative outlet, he ended last season with a tally of 3.6 per outing.
It was a remarkable effort from the Portugal international who had as many as nine shots in one game against Belenenses. During that match he scored a hat-trick in an 8-1 away win for his side.
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Rather incredibly, he had five shots in a single game on nine occasions as he racked up his best tally for goals in a campaign to date.
In regards to current Liverpool players, only Mohamed Salah, 3.6 shots per game, comes close to him. Second on their list for this particular statistic was Sadio Mane who averaged 2.4 in 2018/19.
As Liverpool look to close the narrowest of gaps to Manchester City next season, Fernandes is a player who has the quality to potentially help them do that.
They must do all they can to bring him to Anfield.