With Luis Suarez’ move to Barcelona completed, Liverpool are having to move quickly to find a replacement and reinvest the funds they are receiving. While they missed out on Alexis Sanchez, it still remains unclear who the man could be that replaces Luis Suarez, or if they are even looking for a direct replacement.
But the club have moved swiftly to get some of the targets they identified early in the window, with plenty of talented youngsters among them. One such player whose services Liverpool have secured is 20-yr-old Serb, Lazar Markovic.
The move was confirmed via this press release by Benfica, with the winger/attacking midfielder joining from Portuguese side Benfica, having aigned for the club only last season from Partizan Belgrade.
Lazar Markovic is widely considered as one the finest young creative players in Europe, as he featured in our Talent Radar list of 100 Best Young Players to Watch out for in 2014. The youngster was listed at #17 in that aforementioned list , in the attackers (forward & wingers) category. The list was compiled at the start of the year and we’ve continued to track his progress since then.
Lazar Markovic first made an appearance on Outside of the Boot during his Partizan Belgrade days, as we published this Scout Report on him.
Lazar Markovic finished the season with seven goals and four assists as Benfica won three domestic titles while the curse of Bele Guttman continued in European competition. Interestingly, Lazar Markovic has won a domestic league title in each of his four professional league seasons.
He is by no means a replacement for Luis Suarez, neither is he quite ready to be a prominent figure in the starting eleven, in our opinion. But he certainly is one that can develop into a quality footballer with the right coaching. Given the money spent on Markovic (thought to be in the region of £20 million), it seems that Liverpool and Brendan Rodgers have high hopes for the youngster. Talent Radar will continue to track his progress into the new season and the rest of 2014.
