Jorg Schmadtke’s connections could potentially come in very useful as Liverpool set their sights on possible replacements for long-term injury victim Joel Matip.
The Reds’ two wins so far this week have been overshadowed by the 32-year-old rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament and, in all likelihood, having his season cut cruelly short. As a result, the Merseysiders are reportedly looking towards the Bundesliga to plug the gap left by the Cameroonian’s body blow.
According to The Mirror, Wolfsburg centre-back Maxence Lacroix is on the radar at Anfield and could be available for around £25m. He’s likely to be more attainable in January than another reported target in Marc Guehi, who Crystal Palace won’t countenance selling next month.
It was Schmadtke himself who oversaw Lacroix’s move to Wolfsburg from Sochaux in 2020 for a mere €5m (£4.3m), a transfer which has since come to be regarded as one of the 59-year-old’s best deals during his time at the Volkswagen Arena (Liverpool Echo).
The 23-year-old’s profile on the official Bundesliga website notes how he clocked the division’s fourth-quickest sprint speed in the 2020/21 season at 22.2 mph, citing his ability to ‘glide out of defence and pick a forward pass to a teammate’, along with his ‘steely will to win and a healthy aggression’.
When looking at his statistics compared to other centre-backs in Europe’s top five leagues over the past year (as per FBref), the Frenchman doesn’t jump out as a phenomenal target.
Among a series of performance metrics, the only one for which he ranks among the top 20% is clearances, with his match average of 4.83 placing him in the 83rd percentile. However, he does rank in the top 22% for successful take-ons with 0.38 per game.
Lacroix may not seem like a world-beating defender but he certainly shouldn’t be disregarded by Liverpool in their current situation. A fee of £25m wouldn’t be excessive for a speedy 23-year-old centre-half with almost 100 Bundesliga appearances to his name (Transfermarkt).
The Schmadtke connection could also possibly give the Reds an edge if they’re to seriously pursue the Wolfsburg man in next month’s transfer window. It seems to be something we should exploit.
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