With comparatively low release clauses and a playing style that lends itself nicely to the English top-flight, it is little wonder it is a prime shopping destination for the best England has to offer.
Chelsea added Christian Pulisic for their positions, Manchester City won the races to signal Leroy Sané, İlkay Gündoğan and Kevin De Bruyne while Liverpool have been occupied in the Bundesliga over recent seasons.
Since Jürgen Klopp’s coming at Anfield, the Premier League leaders have recruited Joël Matip, Loris Karius and Naby Keïta in their supervisor’s homeland. Recently, another Bundesliga player appeared on their radar, based on reports from Sport Bild.
The 23-year-old has 24 target involvements in only 3,205 minutes of activity, giving him a goal or an assist every 133 minutes.
The #6million fee paid by Die Grün-Weißen to obtain the versatile forward now resembles an incredibly shrewd investment.
To have the ability to sign a player with 16 goals and eight assists in the equivalent of 35 90-minute matches for about the £30million mark is absurd value for money in today’s market.
The scary part is he is posting these amounts while turning out for a group in a relegation battle. Werder are one spot off the bottom, having picked up only 17 points from 23 matches.
It is safe to say that without Rashica, Werder will probably be suspended to the bottom of the table. He has had a hand in 40 percent of the goals this season. In difficult conditions, the prior Vitesse guy has shown he can provide.
Rumoured to be an Aston Villa transfer goal before, the Werder No.7 has all of the traits of a participant who would be popping up on Liverpool sporting director Michael Edwards’ laptop.
The Reds are connected with Kylian Mbappé and Sancho but all the sound coming from journalists around the Liverpool beat recently has been that the Club World Cup champions will not be breaking the bank to land gamers.
The Reds do not sign world-class celebrities, they make them. While Rashica is not in exactly the same world as Mbappé or Sancho, under the watchful eye of Klopp and his training team, he could become a rival. Perhaps, not concerning standing but certainly in relation to being a productive wide ahead.
He has spent just over a year with Werder today and, at that moment, he has averaged 0.45 goals and 0.22 assists per 90. Rashica’s open-play anticipated goals participation comes in at 0.4, highlighting the fact he is overperforming. But this is over a 3,000-minute sample size, which suggests that he is not just running hot.
These numbers are far better than the averages posted by Sadio Mané before he left his £36million move to Merseyside in 2016.
Rashica is a smart finisher, adding value to his attempts through his shot placement. His open-play anticipated goals average is 0.25 while his post-shot open-play anticipated goals average is 0.30. While that’s a slight gap, it equates to two additional goals over the course of a season. In a better group alongside superior players, those averages could spike.
Furthermore, it’s possible Rashica’s averages will improve with experience. His shot map (above) shows he is still having efforts from space. As simple as it sounds, the nearer you are to the goal the better your chances of scoring. If the 23-year-old adds patience to his skill set, he will start to search for opportunities to work the ball into the region before shooting, which should see his anticipated numbers rise and his real numbers improve, too.
At the moment there is plenty to work with. Not only is he a goal threat, but he is also an effective ball-carrier, trying 4.18 dribbles per 90 and finishing 62 percent of those. He is creative, helping 1.71 shots per 90 while racking up an expected help average of 0.17.
Rashica is not a Mbappé or a Sancho. But he could be equally effective for the Reds in their existing set-up and he is available for a fraction of a cost. Liverpool need to attack reinforcements this summer and the 23-year-old ticks some of their boxes. For £30million, it is an absolute no-brainer.
