Fabian Schär, a familiar name for football fanatics, has been linked with a number of Premier League sides in previous transfer windows. The 24-year old Swiss International made a move to Bundesliga outfit 1899 Hoffenheim from FC Basel on 4 June 2015 and formed a central defensive partnership with German youngster Niklas Süle.
Süle, however, rejected a possible switch to Premier League with Chelsea and Liverpool reportedly shown serious interest to acquire his service. Whereas Schär, despite having a contract until 2019, has been on Internazionale and Liverpool’s radar and the later are confident to strike a deal in the upcoming transfer window as per reports from several outlets.
But is he real good or twitter good? Lots of football intellectuals have moaned about Jürgen Klopp’s transfer policy of spending low and trusting the squad players. Although they are invisible at the moment due to the Reds’ flying start of Premier League campaign, those scholars are expected to show up again in January transfer window with plenty of suggestions and expertise. Schär is one such name that circulates in every transfer window, but with all due respect, Liverpool are currently in a much better shape and already have a number of better centre-backs than the Swiss star.
Klopp, who previously emphasised on training more than spending money on transfers, kept his faith in Dejan Lovren who has eventually become a regular starter despite a horrid debut season at Merseyside. Klopp has brought in Joel Matip from Schalke on a Bosman transfer who has been excellent so far with his calmness, positioning and aerial presence.
Also, Estonian international Ragnar Klavan has been a utilitarian recruit who has been decent in limited opportunities. Youngster Joe Gomez, too, is rated highly by Klopp who is back in full training after a long absence due to ACL injury and another knock suffered just prior to the start of the season.
The former Borussia Dortmund boss has ruthlessly trimmed the squad before his first full season in charge to make it look like his squad and sent fans favorite Mamadou Sakho down the pecking order following a few controversies. He has made one thing very clear: he is the boss here, and everyone must abide by his decisions no matter how unsympathetic it is.
Schär has been a regular in Swiss backline and netted six times in 21 appearances what shows his aerial ability from set-pieces. Although he is still young and full of potential, Schär is inconsistent and needs to improve a lot in order to make it to the starting XI of top Premier League sides.
His performance was not up to the mark in his debut Bundesliga campaign as his side Hoffenheim only managed to avoid a relegation scare.
Statistics are not everything in football, but it can manifest certain things which are required to judge on someone’s mastery. However, a statistical comparison certainly can draw a conclusion that Fabian Schär is not going to be an upgrade over current Liverpool centre-backs. Also, at such young age, he is not expected to join a side where he has to warm the bench and fight for a place in match day squad.
Klopp has clearly indicated that he is only interested in spending if someone makes his squad even better than what it is now, otherwise he will keep faith in club’s prodigies who are “really good young players”. Schär, so far, doesn’t match the criteria and will be surplus to requirements if the deal concludes.
