When it comes to Liverpool, I’m definitely a pessimist. After all we’ve been through as a club over the past five years I, like many of our fans, have found my optimism – and, to a certain extent, my enthusiasm – have suffered greatly – and it takes a lot for me now to genuinely get excited. So when the story broke on the club’s website that we’d completed the signing of Nuri Sahin – albeit only on a season-long loan – I got all giddy for the first time in ages.
When Arsenal were first linked with Sahin I was talking on twitter about how I’d be gutted if they signed him, and how I’d love us to sign him, although I figured it would be a pipedream; after all, why would somehow with no connection to the club choose us over a team who can offer him everything we can, plus Champions League football? So to beat off competition from other clubs to his secure his signature is yet another huge positive for Brendan Rodgers at this very early stage of his tenure at Anfield. The whole saga showed the problems we face trying to lure top players here, but also proved how Liverpool is still an attractive club to join.
Over the past couple of seasons Borussia Dortmund have been by far my favourite team to watch. Jürgen Klopp’s side play some exquisite football; they play with a perfect blend of technique and physique, and are just as capable of scoring from a devastating counter-attack as they are from cutting a team apart through a passage of intricate, purposeful passing. Forget Barcelona – as a team and as club Dortmund have set the model that we should be aspiring to: after their financial woes last decade, they’re now an incredibly well run club (they announced at 42.1% increase in revenue, and made profits of over €30m; their average attendance is well over 70,000 and their ground and fans are amongst the best in the world; they have a talented manager who puts his faith in young players, and they boast a great scouting system which allows them to unearth gems such as Robert Lewandowski, Neven Subotic, Lucas Piszczek, Lucas Barrios et al at a relative low cost.
Anyway, enough of that, let’s get back to Sahin. He broke the records for the youngest player to play, and then score, not only in the Bundesliga but also for the Turkish national team. Becoming a first team regular at just 16, Sahin looked a promising talent, but it wasn’t until a season on loan at Feyernoord in 2007 that was the catalyst to him becoming the player he is today. Bert Van Marwijk, the ex-Holland coach, was manager of Dortmund until 2007, during which brought Sahin in to the first team set up. He was sacked in the summer of ’07 and moved back to Feyernoord, taking Sahin with him on loan for a season.
The Turk really prospered and when he returned to Germany in the summer of 2008 under the new BVB manager Jürgen Klopp, he became an integral part of his plans.

Quickly forming a formidable partnership with Sven Bender at the heart of the Dortmund midfield, Sahin was the creative fulcrum of the side; he was the instigator of their attacks, boasting a passing range and vision that allowed the likes of Mario Gotze, Kevin Krossgreutz, Shinji Kagawa – who cost a mere €300k – and Jakub Blaszczkowski to create havoc in the final third, behind the lethal Paraguayan, Lucas Barrios.
He helped lead Dortmund to their first Bundesliga title in eleven years, capping off a return to glory after the club nearly went bust in the 2005. This is all sounding a bit eerie, isn’t it? Sahin was voted the Bundesliga player of the season for the 2010/11 season, and his performances led to interest from the biggest clubs in the world, and Real Madrid swooped to sign him last summer.
For all Madrid’s wealth, they got an absolute bargain, and had his contract not contained a clause allowing Sahin to move abroad for €10m, then they would have had to pay at least double, maybe even treble that. However, many warned Sahin against the move as with the likes of compatriot Sami Khedira, Xabi Alonso, Lassana Diarra and Estaban Granero already at the club, Sahin was not guaranteed of a regular starting place –and that proved to be true as he made just 8 starts due to missing large parts of the season due to injury, playing less than 700 minutes over the course of the season.*Needing to get his career back on track after a frustrating year, this is the perfect set up for Sahin to prosper once again.
Still just 23, this will remarkably be Sahin’s eighth season as a first-team regular (or seven if you don’t count last season). Although it’s still early days, beyond Lucas, Joe Allen and Jonjo Shelvey none of our central midfielders seem to possess the discipline and the understanding to really thrive in Rodgers’ system. Adam is far too wasteful and tries to force things too often, whilst Spearing is able to keep it simple, but has struggled to really kick on from the promising form he showed during the second half of the 10/11 season. A case could be made for Jordan Henderson, but you have to wonder whether that is because he lacks the self-belief to be more ambitious and assertive when in possession.*
Sahin offers us something different to our other central midfield core: genuine creativity, which we’ve sorely lacked since Xabi Alonso’s departure. Speaking of Alonso, Sahin himself admitted that Xabi has been constantly telling him how he should join us and that he’ll have a great, so much so that Sahin mentioned how much he still loves Liverpool. Good lad, Xabi! To compare the two players would only add unwanted pressure on Sahin, but there are definitely certain similarities in the way they both play – they are players cut from the same cloth.
Nuri Sahin is the player that Charlie Adam tries, but spectacularly fails to be. A player who can see the pass he’s going to play before he even has the ball at his feet; a player who can dictate the game from anywhere on the pitch; a player who likes to get forward and score goals; a player who can genuinely provide great delivery from set pieces; a player who appreciates the importance of keeping the ball and knowing when to attempt a more penetrative pass and when to recycle possession. To put it in simple terms: Nuri Sahin is boss.
If Steven Gerrard is fit for most of the season, it’s a huge bonus. If instead he misses large parts through injury, which recent history would suggest is likely to be the case, then at least we actually have three top quality midfielders – something we haven’t been able to say for a long, long time. We used to sing about having the best midfield in the world, and whilst that’s no longer the case, I have no doubt that this is the best central midfield trio in the league. They are all determined, talented, ambitious players who will only get better under the tutelage of Brendan Rodgers.
When Brendan Rodgers says the supporters are going to love him, they’re not wrong. We’ve been fortunate enough to have had a whole host of classy midfielders play for us over the years, and Sahin is no different. I have not been this excited about a player since we signed Luis Suarez, although admittedly that’s not a particularly inspiring statement given how poorly we’ve spent since then. I just hope we can somehow secure his services permanently at the end of the loan deal because if he recaptures his Dortmund form, which I have no doubt he will, it’s likely that Madrid will want him back next season.
Alex Woo @
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