Rumour Mongering: Liverpool Chasing Swiss Striker Starlet

Being a Liverpool striker ain't easy these days. While Reds fans have watched gloriously talented strikers play their best football at the club over the years, recently they seem to either be poor fits, too young or too injured to perform at their top level. This is reflected in the fact that in the past 18 months and 7500 minutes of football across all competitions, 9 Liverpool strikers have contributed a total of 37 goals combined, or roughly what you'd want one of them to accomplish in that same timeframe. Predictably, strikers will be linked with the club as long as this remains an issue.

Breel-Donald Embolo emerged as one of the very hottest striking prospects on the continent last year, and according to Lorenzo Bettoni of Calciomercato, is subject of a €25m bid from Wolfsburg, with Liverpool, Juventus, Everton and Manchester United monitoring the situation. That sum might seem eye-watering for a teenager playing in an inferior league, but young Embolo might just be worth it.

At only 18, the Cameroon-born striker has already racked up 26 senior goals, with a strike rate of a goal every 200 minutes, and about half as many assists. At a strong and athletic 6'1", he offers both an aerial and a vertical threat, pairing excellent timing with instinctive finishing, as well as an ability to improvise. He has also spent significant time on the right wing, where he displays bundles of trickery and good vision to set up teammates in better positions. And perhaps most importantly, he has been absolutely unaffected when pitched against high-level opposition, scoring and looking completely at home in both the Champion's League and Europa League, as well as playing, scoring and assisting for the Swiss international team.

In short, the kid is a stud in the do-it-all striker mould and seems destined to end up at a top club for a hefty fee before long. Whether he is the solution to Liverpool's striking woes right now is up for debate, and there is always an inherent risk of stagnation when buying young players, but if the idea is to collect some of the best talent in the world in order to build for the future, the Reds couldn't do much better than Embolo.

Enjoy!