Summary Liverpool's interest in Andre Trindade is a negotiating tactic to lower Southampton's asking price for Romeo Lavia, their preferred target. Liverpool have had two offers for Lavia rejected by Southampton, who value him at £50m, but Liverpool's genuine interest in Lavia remains. Lavia had an impressive season at Southampton, with a high passing accuracy, defensive skills, and praise from teammates, making him a promising signing for Liverpool.
Liverpool's interest in Brazilian midfielder Andre Trindade is "clearly a negotiating tactic" to help their position in any future negotiations with Southampton for their exciting midfielder Romeo Lavia, claims journalist Alex Crook.
Are Liverpool signing Romeo Lavia this summer?
It's been a real summer of change for the red half of Merseyside so far this year. Club captain Jordan Henderson left the side for the riches of the Saudi Pro League alongside Champions League-winning Fabinho and Roberto Firmino.
It's not just departures changing the face of the team, though, as Jurgen Klopp has already welcomed two new starting midfielders to Anfield.
The first to make his way to the northwest was Brighton & Hove Albion's World Cup-winning star, Alexis Mac Allister, who signed for the club in a deal worth an initial £35m.
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Shortly after the Argentinian arrived, Hungarian superstar, Dominik Szoboszlai made the journey from RB Leipzig to Liverpool in a deal worth a reported £60m.
While these two players represent excellent business, Fabinho's exit has necessitated the signing of a new number six to complete Klopp's midfield overhaul, and it looks like Liverpool have identified 19-year-old Lavia as that new number six.
According to Sky Sports, the Reds have now had two offers for the youngster rejected by the Saints, with neither one reaching even £40m, considerably short of the £50m valuation they have of their star.
Whilst the six-time European champions retain their interest in the Brussels-born gem, they have also turned their attention to Fluminense prospect Andre, with the Daily Mail reporting that they have already made an offer for an estimated £21m.
However, with the genuine interest the Reds have shown in Lavia thus far, this attempt to sign the 22-year-old Brazilian could be a tactic intended to cause the Saints to lower their price somewhat, according to journalist Alex Crook.
He explained the situation live on TalkSport, with the clip being posted to their YouTube channel:
"I don't know if they will walk away. It always makes me suspicious, and I've been doing this job long enough that when a new name suddenly emerges as it did yesterday [Tuesday] with a Brazilian player, Andre, I think his name was. That's clearly a negotiating tactic from Liverpool, 'let's get this name out there; let's make it clear to Southampton it's not Romeo Lavia or nobody'.
"But they bid up to £40m, Southampton want £50m. Again, for a club of Liverpool's stature, that doesn't seem a massive gap, and I think this lad is going to be a really talented Premier League player, Romeo Lavia, I think £50m is a fair price."
How good was Romeo Lavia last season?
Even though he is only 19 years old, Southampton's midfield prodigy is relatively experienced for a player his age, especially after starting 26 Premier League games last season.
In those games for the Saints, he scored one goal, maintained a passing accuracy of 86.4% – the best of a player with at least 90 minutes under their belt in the entire squad – and averaged a match rating of 6.56, which is made more impressive when the team he was playing in is taken into account, per WhoScored.
He can also put in the defensive work when needed with Fbref, which compares players in a similar position across Europe's top five leagues, placing the 5 foot 11 "monster" in the top 4% of midfielders for blocks per 90.
He has evidently made an impact on his teammates on the south coast, with Theo Walcott telling TalkSport in January:
"He's young, he's 18/19 when he's off the field, but when he's on the field, it's mad. It's like he's played over 200 games in the Premier League, that's how much I rate him. It's very interesting to see, watching him from the stands, obviously it looks so easy from the stands, it always does.
"You probably know that watching us, 'he should make that run or make that pass', it's not as straightforward as that but when I watch him, I'm like 'you look way above your age right now'."
It'll be interesting to see whether or not the links to Andre will affect Southampton's stance towards a deal with Liverpool, but the Reds would be wise to do all they can to sign Lavia before someone beats them to it.
