Florian Neuhaus Emerges As Genuine Liverpool Midfield Target

Borussia Mönchengladbach midfielder Florian Neuhaus didn’t start the summer as a name many Liverpool fans had heard connected to the club, but just 24 hours after rumours of serious interest began to emerge, it appears the 24-year-old might just be the frontrunner to replace the departed Gini Wijnaldum.

Reports out of Germany on Friday were quickly picked up by the English press, and the player’s passing range and and extreme press resistance were highlighted as reasons why the Reds might be interested. It didn’t take much longer for more reliable, Liverpool-connected journalists in England started talking about him.

In The Guardian, Andy Hunter confirmed Neuhaus—identified for unfamiliar readers as “the closest Germany have come to another Toni Kroos”—as a target, while The Mirror’s David Maddock went further in discussing Liverpool’s supposed interest. It’s not deal done stuff just yet, but it seems safely past idle speculation.

Neuhaus won’t be the only player the Reds are considering as they seek a Wijnaldum replacement, and it’s not impossible that despite the flurry of transfer chatter they return to a previously-linked name—a player like Brighton’s Yves Bissouma, Leicester’s Youri Tielemans, or Roma’s Lorenzo Pellegrini.

They could do a lot worse, though, than a 24-year-old who’s earned comparisons to Kroos and who many in Germany have speculated had already agreed to join Bayern Munich this summer or next in a Bundesliga system that can sometimes appear to exist as nothing more than a feeder system for the Bavarian giants.