Call off the hunt - Liverpool’s perfect new £34m midfield signing is obvious

It was a Copa Libertadores final that sizzled with a customary lunacy. Red cards, fist fights, screamers scored by Brazilian strikers inexplicably named after assassinated US presidents; South America gave us its all, and for that we should be forever beholden.

Fluminense, for the first time in a history that stretches back to 1902, sit atop their continental throne having suckerpunched the darlings of IPA hipsterdom, Boca Juniors, in a dramatic 2-1 win. It took extra time and a moment of fierce divinity from John Kennedy to separate the two, but nestled in amongst the deafening expectation of the Maracana, the boys on their home turf came good.

And at the centre of it all, orchestrating the madness like the drummer on a rolling Mad Max war juggernaut, was Andre. The 22-year-old has been perpetually touted for a move to the Premier League in recent times, with Liverpool the foremost suitor in a chase that could eventually cost the winner anywhere up to £34 million. Such is the increasing likelihood of his departure that even Fluminense president Mario Bittencourt has hinted that there is already a verbal agreement in place which will allow the midfielder to leave his childhood club in January.

Any Liverpool supporter fortunate enough to watch him glide around the engine room on Saturday evening, somewhere between a Roomba and Sgt. Bash from Robot Wars, will be salivating at the prospect of his exit. This was the kind of performance that announces the arrival of a burgeoning superstar on the world stage, a fulcrum on which renown can hinge and erupt. Major Brazilian outlet Globo gave Andre a match rating of 8.5 and fondly described him as a ‘jewel’ in the heart of the Fluminense midfield. Elsewhere, ESPN Brasil suggested that this might have been the player’s best outing in senior football to date.

It is easy to see why everybody has been so soundly awestruck too. Over the course of an entire 120 minutes, Andre completed 95% of his attempted passes, and nobody on the field made more successful dribbles. This was no fluke either; since the beginning of the calendar year, the midfielder has only registered a pass completion rate lower than 90% on four occasions, and on average, he is making approximately four times as many dribbles per 90 minutes as his compatriot Fabinho was during his final season at Anfield.

That’s not just random name-dropping for the sake of confirming agendas either. The understanding is that if and when Andre arrives on Merseyside, he would be the natural successor to Fabinho’s defensive midfield mantle. At the time of writing, Liverpool are predominantly relying on Alexis Mac Allister to fulfil the role of a traditional number six, but there is a lingering feeling that his natural attacking proclivities are being wasted in such a conservative position. Meanwhile, Wataru Endo, signed from VfB Stuttgart late in the summer transfer window, has barely been handed an opportunity at all by Jurgen Klopp.

As such, more ballast is undoubtedly needed, and to that end, Andre feels like exactly the sort of player that Liverpool should be trying to sign. He is, in essence, Fabinho 2.0; all of the disruptive thuggery with twice the refined progressive intent. There is, lurking just beneath the surface, a talent of world class potential just waiting to explode, and Saturday’s Copa Libertadores triumph only served to prove that point.