Sorry, really sorry for all the videos (there's two but whatever), just thought you should see what we're getting along with his interview and he's pretty good for young, new guy standards. Especially considering he's from the Serbian league. A good snatch by Klopp, in my opinion.
He stands at 6'3 (about the same height as Klopp) so he will be coming in as the tallest guy in our midfield (Emre in second at 6'0). This is an important piece of information, depending on the way you see it, as it will helps us defend and attack against with teams that rely almost solely on crosses, Crystal Palace and West Ham for example, so we can finally not have Lallana, or other not so tall players defend Andy Carroll. Instead, it's with someone who can properly contest for the ball and intercept those crosses.
Very humble and seems like a hard worker, he can really be good under Klopp, who admires and needs hard workers in his gegenpressing system. Along with having an eye for goal and long shots like Coutinho, he can play defensive midfielder along with attacking midfielder and the regular midfielder position, being described by Klopp to pick up a box to box midfielder sort of style. We know he won't take Coutinho, Firmino or Lallana's position but it certainly will help with injuries that seem to come and go every once in a while. Still, he's more CM/DM than anything, pairing up with Lucas, Hendo or Can.
So what to expect from Grujić is someone who will really work on and off the ball for the first whistle to the last. It won't be the sort of style that Henderson and Lallana are falsely known for having, which is running for the sake of running. Instead, he runs to get the ball back, runs on the ball to get the quick counter attack and runs to make room for the magic people on our team like Coutinho and Sturridge.
It'd be a bit harsh to expect instant results from him, as he's very young to expect consistent and positive matches. I expect that he will mostly have substitution/cup match sort of appearances, so as not to ask too much of him. Maybe remembering how Firmino was at the start of the 15/16 season can help a bit. ;)
For £5.1m, this feels something like a steal as he is a player with a potential to be great. As he's won the Serbian title, in which they went unbeaten, and the U-20 World Cup in the space of two years, hopefully these two achievements give him some confidence to feel comfortable and not out of depth at Anfield. These achievements can even help us when it comes finals, with him becoming one of the few that have been to a final before they've come to the club and not get cold feet the day of. To add to the "this is a steal feeling", Chelsea, Milan and others flew in to try and get him, he's thought of as the next Matic, but we got him instead. Nice business for a first signing!
If you want to add your thoughts on Marko, feel free to add them in the comments!
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Anfield Until The End 16/17
RandomA bit overdue but this is about Liverpool and our new and old players, our cool manager, preseasons, transfer windows, new matches, transfer rumours and anything having to do with the Liverbird, the Redmen and the BPL.
