Former Liverpool star Jose Enrique has used his first column on Empire of the Kop to call for the signing of Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland.
The Spaniard, who played for Liverpool between 2011 and 2016, is a huge fan of Haaland and believes he may be a more realistic target than Paris Saint-Germain superstar Kylian Mbappe, stating his opinion that that deal just isn’t going to happen.
Liverpool have been named as among the long list of potential transfer suitors for Haaland by Fabrizio Romano in his column for Benchwarmers, and it’s clear Enrique thinks he’d continue to score bucketloads of goal if he moved to Anfield.
MORE: Liverpool have edge over Manchester United in transfer race for global superstar
The Norway international has shown himself to be one of the finest finishers in the game in recent times, and one can only imagine how well he’d do with the service he’d get in Jurgen Klopp’s side.
Enrique believes Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson would enjoy it in particular, saying he believes the full-backs would get another 20 assists a season with Haaland to aim at.
“If you want to be a team who wins things year in, year out, you need superstars who can fight for minutes from the bench. The only position we have real depth is midfield,” Enrique told the Liverpool FC blog.
“Look at Manchester City. If Sterling is out, Silva can play. No Mahrez, Ferran Torres comes in. No Aguero, Jesus plays. Liverpool do not have this. Xherdan Shaqiri is a player who can only come in for 20/30 minutes, while Diogo Jota has been out all season. I actually think if he’d stayed fit he would have become a starter by now.
“By spending big money, you take less of a risk on the player. We’ve done well to get players like Andy Robertson for hardly anything, but the more you spend, the less risk you take. That’s what Manchester City have done.”
He added: “My choice is Erling Haaland. We can rule out Kylian Mbappe – he’ll be too expensive. But I think Haaland is possible.
“He’s so good in the air – he’s a beast. Can you imagine Trent and Robbo crossing balls into the box for Haaland? Wow! They would get another 20 assists each per season.
“He’d be another dimension for us and is the kind of player we should be going for. Haaland might cost £100m, but we spent £75m on Van Dijk and that’s what it takes. You can guarantee City will spend £100m-odd on the striker who replaced Aguero… If you think about it, the only one of our forwards who’s good in the air is Mane – so a striker like Haaland would be my priority this summer.”