In a recent tweet, Bundesliga journalist Florian Plettenberg revealed that Liverpool winger Xherdan Shaqiri wants to leave this summer. It is understood that the Reds are demanding around €10m for the Swiss international but have not received any offers for him in this off-season.
Update #Shaqiri (due to many inquiries): Still no interesting offers for him. No negotiations with any club. His price tag remains around €10m. His salary demand is around €3-4m + add ons. He still wants to leave #LFC this summer. @SPORT1 🇨🇭
— Florian Plettenberg (@Plettigoal) August 5, 2021
Shaqiri’s Bit-Part Role At Merseyside Last Season
Shaqiri played another sporadic role for the Merseyside giants last season but missed several games because of a muscle injury. The 29-year-old registered one goal and four assists in 22 matches for the Reds in the previous campaign on all fronts.
Most of the Gjilan-born talent’s game time came off the bench which explains why he could only average 0.8 shots, 1.4 key passes and 0.4 dribbles per game in Premier League football. Still, he was excellent when distributing the ball after making 87.2% of his attempted passes in the English top tier (stats via whoscored).
Shaqiri needs to secure regular game time in the coming seasons if he wants to get back to playing at a high level in top-flight football. Hence, he has a lot of reasons to seal a move away from Anfield in this off-season.
Should The Reds Let Shaqiri Go This Summer?
Shaqiri is a decent dribbler with the ball at his feet and can engineer a few inviting opportunities for his teammates to find the back of the net. He has a good football IQ and can often drop deep to get on the ball and cut open the opposition defence with a killer pass in the attacking third of the field. Shaqiri is primarily a right-sided winger as he can cut in to cause a lot of problems for his marker. He can even fill in as a left-winger or operate in the number ten position if required.
The Swiss international has not played regular first-team football for a long-time which could be why there is little to no interest in him so far during this summer transfer period. His current contract at Anfield is set to run out at the end of next season. Hence, it makes sense for the Reds to let Shaqiri leave in this off-season or else risk losing him as a free agent next year.
At 29, the Liverpool wide player has still got a few good years left in him to play at top gear. Therefore, Jurgen Klopp should think about letting him go as he already has a strong squad as it is and has no reason to keep hold of Shaqiri beyond this summer.
