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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Stephen Killen

Jurgen Klopp handed Arthur Melo challenge with Pep Guardiola claim for Liverpool target

South American football expert Tim Vickery has claimed that Liverpool loan target Arthur Melo is more of a "Pep Guardiola-type midfielder".

The Brazilian midfielder looks set to be the Reds' deadline day arrival as Jurgen Klopp looks to alleviate concerns following their recent injury struggles.

Liverpool's midfield problems were compounded by a hamstring injury suffered by Jordan Henderson during the dramatic win over Newcastle United. The skipper became the latest on the treatment table with Naby Keita, Thiago Alcantara and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain also sidelined.

READ MORE: Arthur Melo transfer latest as Liverpool midfield plan emerges on deadline day

READ MORE: Liverpool fans react to Arthur Melo move with '10 games' theory and €70m claim

The 26-year-old has been in talks over a move to Merseyside on a season-long loan. South American football expert, Vickery, described the last-ditch attempt to secure an arrival as 'surprising and intriguing'.

He told Sky Sports: "Surprised and intrigued, as we saw yesterday, Liverpool at their best they’re so vertical, so relentlessly vertical. Arthur is much more of a possession-based midfielder, you certainly see him more as a Pep Guardiola-type midfielder than a Jurgen Klopp-type midfielder.

"When he came up the ranks, there were huge hopes around him at Gremio, he was always seen as a Barcelona midfielder and that’s where his European adventure started. It hasn’t really come off, the central midfielders have always seemed to struggle to adapt to top-level European football and he’s not getting a game at Juventus.

"There is a player there, there is a player with a low centre of gravity, capable of keeping possession and it looks as if this deal is going through, one no one saw coming and it’s Jurgen Klopp adding to midfield options in a way none of us could have foreseen."

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