Liverpool reportedly tracking centre-back closely ahead of summer swoop | OneFootball

Liverpool are reportedly keeping a close eye on RC Lens centre-back Loic Bade ahead of a potential summer swoop for the defender.

According to Le10Sport, Liverpool are interested in signing the 20-year-old and have been active behind the scenes in sounding out a possible transfer at the end of the season.

The report claims that Milan were also keen on signing Bade before moving on to Strasbourg defender Mohamed Simakan, who they are ‘very close’ to bringing in.

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ANFIELD WATCH VERDICT

This looks like it could be a very shrewd piece of business by Liverpool if they can lure him to the club in the summer transfer window. Despite only being 20, Bade has recorded an average WhoScored rating of 7.02 in Ligue 1 across 16 starts for Lens, which is higher than Joe Gomez and Virgil van Dijk’s were before their respective injuries and is only 0.01 lower than Joel Matip’s in the Premier League.

It is impossible to gauge exactly how performances from Ligue 1 translate over to the Premier League, but Wesley Fofana has been one success story this season having made the same move last summer from Ligue 1 to Leicester. Fofana, 20, has been a mainstay in the Leicester side this season and averaged a WhoScored rating of 7.17 in the Premier League, which ranks him fifth in the division in terms of centre-backs. This suggests that there is scope for Bade to have a similar impact at Anfield if he makes the switch.

With Bade only being 20 it could also give Jurgen Klopp a chance to have him learn from the likes of Joel Matip and Virgil van Dijk. He could come in as an understudy for his first season whilst getting minutes in rotation as he adapts to the English game, whereas an experienced defender may want to be first-choice immediately.