Richard Hughes lining up GENIUS centre-back transfer

Liverpool are lining up a genius move to sign a centre-back.

Richard Hughes has proved a shrewd negotiator over the course of the summer. His track-record speaks for itself and even though we aren't quite experiencing it on the pitch just yet, in time we will.

Not just at Liverpool but at Bournemouth Hughes has built successful teams loaded with superstars. The Bournemouth side he assembled with Dean Huijsen, Milos Kerkez and Ilya Zabarnyi ended up making history and then earning big moves to the biggest clubs in Europe right now.

Huijsen at Real Madrid, Kerkez at Liverpool and Zabarnyi as Paris Saint Germain.

The latter was a particularly smart signing from Hughes. He signed Zabarnyi from Dinamo Kyiv. At the time, not many other clubs in England were prepared to take a punt on him but Hughes saw the potential, and he pounced.

The Ukranian market is often filled with such potential and there's a player who is following in the footsteps of Zabarnyi right now and also reportedly on Liverpool's radar.

TBR Football has claimed that Liverpool have identified Taras Mykhavko as a potential centre-back option ahead of the upcoming January and summer window where bringing in a player in that position is going to be on the agenda.

You may not have heard of 20-year-old, but you will soon. And he could be a genius signing from Hughes this summer.

He announced himself on the international stage with a goal against England's U21 side on his debut for Ukraine's U21 team.

He's also been catching the eye in the Europa League for Dynamo Kyiv, very much following in the footsteps of Zabarnyi, who also made his mark at the Ukrainian club.

Mykhavko is a left-sided centre-back and first and foremost he's a great defender. Over the course of his senior career in just over 4500 minutes, he's won 73% of his 6 defensive duels per 90 minutes. Averaging 4.63 aerial duels, he's also won 62.3%, which is a decent return.

Obviously for Slot's side you don't just need to be a good defender but you also need to be excellent on the ball. Mykhavko is exactly that, he's averaged over 70 passes in his career, and over 40% of his attempts (29) have been forward passes.

This highlights that he isn't just a player who makes comfortable side passes but he looks ahead to make penetrative passes into dangerous territories.

9.34 passes of his passes per 90 minutes have also been to the opposition's final third, with 74% reaching its target. That's a little lower but it's interesting to take into account that it's actually higher (81%) in the Europa League and the Champions League, where he has over 1200 minutes and where he often faces more difficult opposition.

Mykhavko is also relatively quick, he can make a lot of recovery runs and cover a lot of ground, too.

Hughes struck gold with Zabarnyi and he could strike gold again. This time the only difference for the Ukranian defender will be that he's going to be making the step-up to Anfield rather than Bournemouth.

However, any defender coming in won't have to start games right away. Not until Virgil van Dijk is still at the club. So there will be time and patience to settle and adjust.

As a way of adding depth to the squad, this could be a really genius move. It makes sense why Liverpool are already making steps to secure his signature.

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