Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has revealed the Reds will look to bring in players who can play more than one role in the summer transfer window.
The Merseyside club enjoyed a brilliant run in the recently concluded season as they finished as the runners up behind the champions Manchester City. Liverpool return to the Champions League next term and the former Swansea boss will be looking at adding quality to strengthen the squad depth.
Rodgers is keen to bring in new faces to Anfield who posses “strong technique and football intelligence” as Liverpool look to compete in all fronts in the next campaign.
“Our criteria that we look for is players with strong technique and football intelligence. They need to mentally have the attitude and the capacity to learn. And they have to be so hungry to fight for every ball on every day in training and in the game,” Rodgers told the club’s official website.
“You’ll get some players who are specialists and who need to play in particular positions, but if we can get players in who are multi-functional, and can play in different roles and are multi-dimensional in their work, it sets us up and gives me more options as a coach.”
Meanwhile, the Northern Irishman believes Liverpool have improved tactically, while not altering the style of play.
Rodgers stressed the importance of developing young players from their youth setup and was full of praise for Jordan Ibe’s Man of the Match performance against Shamrock Rovers in Dublin.
“We’ve developed tactically over the last couple of years. Our style has been the same, but the structure of the team has changed a number of times in order to fit the needs of the games and to give problems to the opponent,” Liverpool manager said.
“In order to do that, you need players with the capacity to be tactically intelligent. It also allows you to keep your squad smaller and tighter. Like you saw against Shamrock – Jordon Ibe is a young player, 18 years of age.”
“We’re coaching and developing him. He’s been a wide player traditionally in a 4-3-3, but he came in for the second half and played at the top of a diamond. And he showed wonderful intelligence and quality, technically and tactically, to play,” Rodgers added.
Liverpool are thought to be interested in Bayern Munich winger Xherdan Shaqiri and Southampton’s skipper Adam Lallana.
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