Liverpool are in desperate need of a new right back, and given the club’s methods under Fenway Sports Group, it’s a safe bet they’ll be targeting young talent. If they can find a talent player whose stock has dropped and could be had for a relative bargain, all the better. Enter Lucas Digne, who seems a near perfect fit. Except for the part where he’s a left back.
PSG’s promising 21-year-old joined the Parisian money men two years ago for £10M but has struggled to crack the starting eleven—and get the playing time he desperately needs to come good on his promise. That has led to reports in L’Equipe that the player is ready to move on and PSG would be open to offers for him, and they claim Liverpool have already made the approach.
Digne made 14 league starts for PSG last season and 23 appearances across all competitions, registering one assist along the way. The year before, he made 15 league starts and had two assists. As a 19-year old with Lille in 2012-13, though, he registered two goals in 31 league starts. He also started for them in the Champions League in what at the time seemed a breakout season.
Though he represents both youth and promise and, given he has largely stagnated since joining PSG, a potential bargain, left back seems something of an odd place for Liverpool to be splashing the cash. A little depth there certainly couldn’t hurt, but spending a similar fee to the one paid for Alberto Moreno last summer to bring in a similarly young talent is hard to make sense of.
Particularly when the club’s real position of need at the back is on the right, where Glen Johnson is departing, Jon Flanagan had six months of good football before spending a year injured, and the manager appears not to rate Javi Manquillo. A player fitting Digne’s profile who could play on that side would be awfully tempting, but that player isn’t Lucas Digne.