Dani Olmo is desperate to see ‘killer’ Timo Werner stay at RB Leipzig and turn down a much-mooted move to Liverpool, speaking to Goal about his £50 million Bundesliga teammate.
Before the global health crisis reared its ugly head and thrust the transfer market into a period of almost unprecedented uncertainty, it seemed only a matter of time before the jet-heeled Germany international was unveiled at Anfield.
Werner’s admiration for the Premier League leaders is well documented and that feeling, it seems, is mutual. According to The Independent, Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool were giving serious consideration to signing a 27-goal forward with a £50 million release-clause.
The former Stuttgart record-breaker is not short of self-confidence and, as the report points out, he would have no qualms about the prospect of fighting Sadio Mane, Mo Salah or Roberto Firmino for a first-team role on Merseyside.
But with big-money transfers likely to be few and far between this summer, the smart money is now on Werner spending one more year in familiar surroundings. And Olmo, the £17 million Spain international who joined Leipzig in January, would love his fellow Leipzig forward to stick around.
“He gives you a lot of options because he loves to move all over the pitch,” the former Barcelona youngster says. “He’s not a target man or a static striker, he likes to drift to the wings or drop into midfield to receive the ball and break the defensive line.
“He’s so fast and he has the killer instinct – he’s scored a lot this season. He’s a player that gives you a lot of opportunities in the way that he plays.
“I think the place that he fits best is Leipzig and the Bundesliga. He’s doing pretty well where he is.”
Blessed with rapid speed and lethal finishing skills, Germany’s answer to Jamie Vardy looks perfectly suited to the pace and power of Premier League football. But how a forward who is pretty much the antithesis to the cerebral Bobby Firmino fare as Liverpool’s number nine?
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