Liverpool could have the next Fabinho on their hands with genius £60m summer transfer swoop

It’s hard to say anything that Liverpool have done since the end of last season is a failure given that they currently sit atop the Premier League and have won the EFL Cup, but their inability to sign a long-term replacement for Fabinho might count. Bids for Moisés Caicedo and Roméo Lavia failed, and the only eventual signing in that position was 31-year-old Wataru Endo, a stopgap. Finding a defensive midfielder who can hold the role down for years to come is likely to be a priority in the summer – and they might have found their man in the form of Alan Varela.

The 22-year-old Argentine, who signed for Porto from Boca Juniors just last summer for a fee which could rise to a little over £9m, has already attracted significant interest from some of Europe’s biggest clubs and Liverpool appear to be among them, based on numerous reports from Portugal and elsewhere.

Varela wouldn’t come cheap, and it has been reported that Porto would only sell him if his €70m (£59.5m) release clause was met – so can he really be worth that kind of outlay? And is he the long-term holding midfielder that Liverpool need to replace Fabinho (and Endo) or to free Alexis Mac Allister up to venture further forward?

Varela is not yet a full international, although he has played for his country’s Under-20s side – his rise has been rapid, and he only became a regular starter at Boca in 2022. He has wasted no time building a reputation as a rock solid midfielder, however, and his performances in Portugal have been highly impressive.

His standout quality is his tackling – and more specifically, the timing of his tackles. He has the knack of anticipating the precise moment to put his foot in to win the ball cleanly even when attacker are coming at him at speed. Combine that with strong positional sense and the ability to read the game with clarity and you have a defensive midfielder who breaks up a lot of attacks and turns the ball over with regularity.

That same sense of anticipation also makes him a superb last line of defence when he’s forced to track back into the box, and he blocks an impressive number of shots with a clear willingness to put his body on the line. Varela is undoubtedly brave and his work ethic is unquestionable – he runs himself into the ground game after game, and will pop up all over the midfield putting out fires and throwing himself into challenges.

That habit of launching himself into tackles is one technical deficiency that he has, and he can be excessively aggressive when going for the ball - but it seems to be something his coaches at Porto are getting out of his system. In his last season at Boca, he racked up 10 bookings from 20 starts, but after earning a one-match suspension for collecting five yellow cards in 15 league games in Portugal, he has reined things in a little and has had his name taken just once since in his ten matches since.

He's also more than just a midfield wrecking ball, although that is certainly his primary role. His technique is impeccable and he has remarkable confidence with the ball at his feet, shifting the ball quickly under pressure and dodging out of tackles with ease and elegance – and while he’s no goal machine, he’s used that same skill and composure in the box as well, as this recent goal against Farense demonstrates (with apologies for the irritating advert at the beginning of the clip):

He has a good passing range, too. His direct balls could use some additional finesse but he has a great eye for a pass and knows where his team-mates are. He feeds a lot of quick, line-breaking passes over short or medium distances which help to tee up attacks, even if he doesn’t get too involved in the final third himself.

The downsides are that he isn’t a natural ball-carrier despite his quality when it’s at his feet and the fact that he has a respectable turn of pace, and when faced with the option to beat his man he will invariably look for a lateral pass instead. That makes him more economical that destructive, but Liverpool don’t lack for threat in midfield or for players who can run with the ball – they’re missing an anchor man who can hold the fort down and get the ball moving quickly once attacks have been broken up. That’s exactly what Varela does well, so it’s no surprise that they’re keeping a close eye on him.

They may well find that they have plenty of competition for Varela’s signature. Paris Saint-Germain have been mentioned in dispatches as another side who are interested, as have Manchester City – but it’s Liverpool who are mentioned most frequently, and the frequency and diversity of the sources suggests that there may well be substance to the rumours, although no credible reports claim that Liverpool have made a formal offer for him as yet.

All of Liverpool’s best teams, like most great teams, have been built around the talents of a great defensive midfielder who can lead the defence and orchestrate play around him – whether that’s Graeme Souness, Dietmar Hamann, Javier Mascherano, Xabi Alonso or, more recently, Fabinho, who struggled in his last season at Anfield but was integral to their Premier League and Champions League wins under Jürgen Klopp.

The club’s success this year comes in spite of the absence of an elite holding midfielder, not because of it – but the arrival of Varela could change that. He isn’t a great yet, but he is getting closer to the elite level with each passing month and his all-round game has been visibly improving over the course of the season. He could well be precisely the player that Liverpool need as they prepare to enter the post-Klopp era.