Liverpool fans expected big things of Lazar Markovic but three disastrous years have left his career at a crossroads.
Former Liverpool flop Lazar Markovic was booed by his own fans while being substituted during Sporting Lisbon’s 2-1 Champions League defeat to Borussia Dortmund, O Jogo reports.
The talented winger swapped Benfica for Anfield in 2014 but struggled to live up to huge expectations during his debut campaign on Merseyside, not helped by his billing as ‘the Serbian Messi’ due to his penchant for rapid dribbling.
European football writer Andy Brassell described Markovic to the BBC as a “rare talent” upon his arrival and predicted that he would be worth double his price tag within a few years, but Liverpool would surely snap any potential suitors hand clean off if they were offered even half the £20 million they paid two seasons ago.
Shunted into an unfamiliar right-wing-back role to fit Brendan Rodgers’ tactical specifications in his one full campaign with Liverpool, Markovic failed to rediscover the form that made him one of the most sought-after talents in European football in a loan spell at Fenerbahce which yielded just 14 league appearances last season.
A return to Portugal with the Lisbon giants also appears to have turned sour for the 22-year-old, with his once promising career appearing to have hit a new low with O Jogo reporting that he departed the Estadio Jose Alvalade pitch to a chorus of boos in Sporting’s home defeat to Dortmund on Tuesday night.
It appears unlikely that Markovic is to enjoy any sort of a future at Anfield but, for now, the present is concerning enough.
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