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Why Liverpool should not expect too much from Xherdan Shaqiri

Why Liverpool should not expect too much from Xherdan Shaqiri

  • Kaustubh Pandey(@Kaus_Pandey17)
Liverpool's signing of Xherdan Shaqiri from Stoke City was confirmed last night, weeks after the club's deal to sign Nabil Fekir had broken down. The Swiss winger has signed for a fee close to 14 million pounds as Liverpool activated the player's release clause.

The reaction from Reds fans has been pretty positive and it is widely believed that the 26-year-old will be a very good-back up to the likes of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, with Adam Lallana's injury troubles always pegging him back and Divock Origi having come back from a below-par loan spell at Wolfsburg.

 

And while there is no doubt about the fact that Shaqiri can be a very good player on his day, most recently in the World Cup against Serbia in the group stages, the risk factors involved in this deal have been reduced by the fee involved.

However, after the Reds' lack of cover and lack of bench strength was exposed in the Champions League final against Real Madrid, it seems as if Liverpool have gone for a player who hardly promises anything beyond being a bundle of pace and tricks.

And it all comes down to the reasons why Shaqiri could never make the cut at Bayern Munich under Pep Guardiola or under Roberto Mancini at Inter Milan. It was all because of one reason; Shaqiri was criticised for not working hard enough and for not giving his all in sophisticated systems.

His tendency to go past defenders, leave them rattled and often come up with odd thunderbolts is something that has caught the eyes of many, but Shaqiri has always lacked a final pass to his game. While he did score eight times and assist seven times for Stoke last season, doing that for a relegated side is not something that is too big of an achievement. During Stoke's 2016-17 campaign, Shaqiri scored four times and assisted twice in 21 appearances and he appeared 27 times in the 2015-16 campaign, scoring thrice and assisting six times.

While Jurgen Klopp's system isn't as complex as that of Pep Guardiola's, it relies on players working their socks off while pressing and counter-pressing. The German boss has always had flair players in his side but those players had a decisiveness in their play, while Shaqiri struggles to have that.

And although, Shaqiri isn't as good a signing as Nabil Fekir, the fee that is being paid for him makes him a signing with whom Liverpool have nothing to lose and everything to gain with a decent player.

It is fair to not expect too much from Shaqiri. He might prove to be handy at a lot of times in the campaign, but players who don't fit the manager's system make only limited contributions to a side that already knows the system well.

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