Sidelined or on the fringes of their previous employers, due to excess in talent the ranks, stockpiling and a consequent lack of opportunities, players in fashion fall out favour as quickly as Armani’s fall collection. As the new stock comes in, the older ones find themselves pushed behind the rack. The free transfer market is littered with such players, just waiting for clubs to sift through and be dusted off. Liverpool and Juergen Klopp have a bargain buy peeking out at them, sheepishly, behind all the high-priced haute couture, but they’d have to hurry as Tony Conte’s Chelsea are wise to it.
The player in question is Luis Suarez’s mate, the multi-functional, Uruguayan Martin Caceres. Liverpool can do a lot worse than the buccaneering full-back, who is perhaps the most high-profile defenders in the free transfer mill in recent history. Juergen Klopp had admitted his unwillingness to pay over the odds for a left-back, with the outlay on the stadium expansion perhaps playing a telling part in his prudence. But if the German has half-an-eye, he’d be more than tempted to recruit a man who is a 5 time Serie A Champion, Spanish Treble Winner, Champions League winner, and with Luis Suarez, broke the stranglehold of Brazil and Argentina in the Copa America.
T4o’s Srijandeep Das takes a look as to why the man from Montevideo would be the perfect Juergen Klopp coup.
#1 Versatile AF
Might sound outrageous at first, but Martin Caceres can play up to six positions on the pitch. I kid you not. His technical ability for a defender, is mind-boggling, which is perhaps why Barcelona spunked out a fat dab of cash at Villarreal without him even featuring once for the Yellow Submarine. Left-footed, but expertly ambidextrous, he’s capable of putting in consistent displays all across the backline, and also featured as a right wing-back, a right midfielder, and in central midfield.
Such appreciation for adaptability would not be lost in Juergen Klopp’s system, considering the lack of cover the team have at their full-back positions, with only James Milner being there to shuttle across the left-back and the right-back positions in an event of an injury to Nathaniel Clyne or Alberto Moreno.
Additionally, his proficiency at playing a deeper midfield role has seen Oscar Tabarez feature him alongside and in place of Arevalo Rios and Guzman Pereira for the Uruguayan national team.
#2 European Credentials
A player’s adaptability exalts his tactical perceptivity. An understanding of space and lack thereof, and how to react to any given situation, is something that is innate among certain players. Caceres, often, when he has the ball at his feet, will look to play the right pass, instead of the easy one, carrying the ball, thereby setting a tone of attack right from the back. Having featured for the likes of Juventus and Barcelona, he’d apparel his learnings into the passage of play Liverpool look to execute from the back – which, if the first goal they conceded against Burnley and Spurs’ equaliser is anything to go by, is a trait they’d critically need, as opponents look to press their backline at every given opportunity to extort mistakes.
#3 South American Guile – The Garra Charrua
Liverpool fans would be well-acquainted to the tangible-intangibilities certain South American bring to the fore. Javier Mascherano and Luis Suarez were players for the biggest of occasions. That clenched-jawed determination was conspicuous by its absence at the Europa League final, vs Sevilla. The Liverpool outfit had too many daisy cutters in their ranks, and not enough players who would rattle and harass the best attacking threats from their opposition.
Caceres will bring that much-needed grit and steel where ever Klopp may eventually apply him, if he goes ahead with the free transfer.
Verdict
Football history is fraught with players whose versatility became their own undoing. Seen throughout his career, at club-level, as the perfect defensive utility-man, Martin Caceres, in spite of his talents, was never allowed a fair crack to make a starting berth his own. However, if Liverpool do come calling, Martin and Klopp would be safe in the knowledge that he’d easily be their best bet at left-back and/or defensive midfield. For pennies, this low-risk/high-reward coup is one Klopp cannot simply miss.
