Emre Can (Liverpool > Juventus)

I have a feeling Can will be our best signing this summer. Maybe he's just what we missed in our midfield. Strong, dominant midfielder who can defend and go forward. A bit like Yaya Toure...

This lad is going to be very popular. Made up with his signing. What a beast.

He got my attention onto his debut against manchester city. I was stunned by his skill in midfield, i think he could work well in combination with gerrard/coutinho/lallama. He is physically strong as F**k and in other hands he's creative and good dribbler.

Thought he was fantastic when he came on yesterday. What a beast. I think he's going to turn out to be a wonderful player for us for years to come.

Thinking about getting his name on the back of my new top.

Thought he was fantastic when he came on yesterday. What a beast. I think he's going to turn out to be a wonderful player for us for years to come.

Thinking about getting his name on the back of my new top.

Thought the same mate, was made up with the way he wasn't muscled off the ball as some whippet-like attackers usually are, cannot wait till he settles in and puts a few goals away. After saying that he nearly had a dream debut yesterday. 
Good idea Ian about getting his name on the shirt.

Thought he was fantastic when he came on yesterday. What a beast. I think he's going to turn out to be a wonderful player for us for years to come.

Thinking about getting his name on the back of my new top.

Me too, what surprised me was his burst of pace that took him away from (whoever it was) before he was brought down, he still managed to get the pass off.

Himself and Hendo did well in the second half against Spurs.
Definitely not a hope of those boys getting overrun in midfield.

Yeah lads, he's not frightened of getting stuck in that's for sure and for a man of his size, he's got some pace about him. Nice work scouts!

Thanks stuey mate, I might just do it.

Good powerful run in the build up to when Sterling should have made it 4-0.

Out of interest, why do you not rate Can mick?

Note: I'm actually answering this question from another thread (the Lucas transfer one, where I indicated I was happy enough to keep Lucas as I didn't think Can was up to stepping in for Gerrard).


It's definitely a fair question mate, but "not rate" wouldn't be how I'd describe my feelings towards the German. Clearly he has ability and undoubtedly there's potential, but that said I think at this stage it would be fair to say I've been significantly less knocked out by him than most on the forum. It's not that I "don't rate" him, it's just that I think he's very much a work in progress and currently a fair bit off being where he'd need to be in order to be a first choice starter.

My read on Can:


He's obviously a very powerful boy, has a turn of pace on him and is a huge physical presence. He came in and was talked about as being a "holding midfielder" but he looks to more like he's a wannabe box to box player, an all action ball-winner come game changer at this stage. I know (before some genius points it out) that that's how he's been asked to play so far, but I don't see the awareness and anticipation in his game which would enable him to be effective sitting in front of the back four. Nor do I see the crispness of pass, the appreciation of movement required to release the likes of Sterling and/or Coutinho into the little pockets of space they operate in, between the banks of four. It may well come with time (it may take a while) but for me it isn't there yet. He could do a lot worse than watch videos of the likes of Patrick Viera particularly in the latter stages of his career, he'd be more of a prototype of the ex Arsenal man for me than he would be one of Gerrard.

The problem we are going to come against fairly soon is that we have IMHO absolutely nobody in the team who is even slightly similar to Gerrard who can step in when we rest him. That's a surmountable poser as Brendan will change the way we play, but for me it's then imperative that the person stepping in has the necessary snap in their distribution to get the ball into the opposition half nice and quick. Lucas is by far the better option out of the two IMHO, even Joe Allen would be a better option than Can at this stage IMHO.

The issue with the German which is he is going to run up against is what type of midfielder is he eventually going to be, in this Liverpool team? Does he possess the guile of a Sterling, or a Lallana and can force himself in that way? Does he have the running power of a Henderson, or an Allen and can force himself in there? Or can he step in as the holder, does he have the maturity or the awareness? My guess is that for a season or two he's going to be the "why the f*** doesn't Brendan give X a go?" player, the "WTF has X done to upset Rogers?" guy. The reality is, or will be, because he isn't currently good enough to force his way in, in any guise at all. If I was having money on it though (and I'm not) I'd guess that it'll be a Jordan Henderson type role Can will eventually settle into, not so much a Gerrard/Lucas one. Unpalatable as it maybe as well, it wouldn't be the biggest surprise to me if it ended up being not at Liverpool, for me he needs to improve a fair bit.   

The problem we are going to come against fairly soon is that we have IMHO absolutely nobody in the team who is even slightly similar to Gerrard who can step in when we rest him. That's a surmountable poser as Brendan will change the way we play, but for me it's then imperative that the person stepping in has the necessary snap in their distribution to get the ball into the opposition half nice and quick. Lucas is by far the better option out of the two IMHO, even Joe Allen would be a better option than Can at this stage IMHO.

Yeah, well, for many, that's [replacing his role] the reason many 'need to talk about Gerrard' mick. The team plays a very specific way when he plays and has to alter it when he doesn't. Anyhow...

If we are to 'surmount' that 'poser' for me the easiest way would be to play Henderson in the Gerrard role with Can moving into the Henderson position. Henderson's passing is way better than some might believe (certainly at this time last year) - you've just got to remember how he played for England U21s to know that.

Put simply - rather than look to Can or Lucas to fill 'the Gerrard role' [which is passing, rather than defensive], you replace him with the closest fit [Hendo] and then fill that 'void' with, again, the closest fit... Can. In my opinion, of course.

When we were first linked with Can I pointed out (having watched him a bit) that he was much more than a holding midfielder. I feel very confident that his time will come; whether it's along side Hendo, in front of Stevie or along side Lallana, in front of Hendo.

Good post mate and a good option. I myself wouldn't go for it, but it's definitely got merits and Brendan might well agree with you. I do though agree with pretty much every word you've written (the team playing a specific way when Gerrard plays, his role being mostly passing rather than defensive, Henderson being a good passer etc etc). The only thing I differ from is your conclusion, here's why:


I think Hendersons running power has become very important to the team, and to lose that AS WELL AS Gerrard being out, would seem like an unnecessary burden to impose on ourselves. I could go with Can playing alongside Henderson (say replacing Allen to give us a bit more physicality) and bringing Lucas in in place of Gerrard, but I wouldn't move Hendo unless we have to. Equally, while I agree that he (Henderson) possesses a fine range of pass, it isn't comparable to Gerrards IMHO so we'd be far better off leaving the 50 yard diagonals out of our repertoire and playing shorter/quicker.

Incredible as it may seem (and it does to me a little if I'm honest) I'm banging the drum a bit for Lucas here. He CAN do the snappy little passes into our snappy little players, and providing we set up with him very close to our centre halves (and I'm talking really close here) we ought to be able to make it work.

As far as Can is concerned, I'm a bit behind the eight ball compared to some as I'd never heard of him before we signed him (predictably). I've only seen him in a red shirt, and although I don't rate him so far as high as some, I definitely do see why he's made such an impression (and indeed why we signed him). He really does have bags of potential, I just think he's got a bit of learning to do. Once again though I agree with you in that I think that for the moment, his role ought to be as a potential "further forward midfielder" (I'll let someone else think of the current label) than it is as a sitter.     

I don't care what role he takes on, I just hope he learns it well and gets a chance to impress. We need an enforcer like him in the lineup.

Note: I'm actually answering this question from another thread (the Lucas transfer one, where I indicated I was happy enough to keep Lucas as I didn't think Can was up to stepping in for Gerrard).


It's definitely a fair question mate, but "not rate" wouldn't be how I'd describe my feelings towards the German. Clearly he has ability and undoubtedly there's potential, but that said I think at this stage it would be fair to say I've been significantly less knocked out by him than most on the forum. It's not that I "don't rate" him, it's just that I think he's very much a work in progress and currently a fair bit off being where he'd need to be in order to be a first choice starter.

My read on Can:


He's obviously a very powerful boy, has a turn of pace on him and is a huge physical presence. He came in and was talked about as being a "holding midfielder" but he looks to more like he's a wannabe box to box player, an all action ball-winner come game changer at this stage. I know (before some genius points it out) that that's how he's been asked to play so far, but I don't see the awareness and anticipation in his game which would enable him to be effective sitting in front of the back four. Nor do I see the crispness of pass, the appreciation of movement required to release the likes of Sterling and/or Coutinho into the little pockets of space they operate in, between the banks of four. It may well come with time (it may take a while) but for me it isn't there yet. He could do a lot worse than watch videos of the likes of Patrick Viera particularly in the latter stages of his career, he'd be more of a prototype of the ex Arsenal man for me than he would be one of Gerrard.

The problem we are going to come against fairly soon is that we have IMHO absolutely nobody in the team who is even slightly similar to Gerrard who can step in when we rest him. That's a surmountable poser as Brendan will change the way we play, but for me it's then imperative that the person stepping in has the necessary snap in their distribution to get the ball into the opposition half nice and quick. Lucas is by far the better option out of the two IMHO, even Joe Allen would be a better option than Can at this stage IMHO.

The issue with the German which is he is going to run up against is what type of midfielder is he eventually going to be, in this Liverpool team? Does he possess the guile of a Sterling, or a Lallana and can force himself in that way? Does he have the running power of a Henderson, or an Allen and can force himself in there? Or can he step in as the holder, does he have the maturity or the awareness? My guess is that for a season or two he's going to be the "why the f*** doesn't Brendan give X a go?" player, the "WTF has X done to upset Rogers?" guy. The reality is, or will be, because he isn't currently good enough to force his way in, in any guise at all. If I was having money on it though (and I'm not) I'd guess that it'll be a Jordan Henderson type role Can will eventually settle into, not so much a Gerrard/Lucas one. Unpalatable as it maybe as well, it wouldn't be the biggest surprise to me if it ended up being not at Liverpool, for me he needs to improve a fair bit.   

Find myself agreeing with plenty of this mate but have a completely different conclusion. For a 20 year old lad I think he has plenty of the attributes to force his way into any of those positions in midfield. Granted he's a rough diamond at the moment but look back at Gerrard or Viera when they were 20 and they were a long way off what they eventually became, as is Emre.

For instance Allen, what does he actually have to do to oust Joe from the side? Be tenacious, he's shown enough of that for me already. Have an engine, he has that for sure and be good positionally well that is where he needs to improve to take Joe's place. He is caught watching the ball and letting play get ahead of him a little but with players like Lucas/Allen/Henderson to learn from, I'm pretty sure he'll pick that up quickly.

What he seems to have ahead of Joe is a great drive, you can see that almost Viera type stride when he moves, you're not going to shake this guy off the ball without a tank. I'd love to see what his shooting is like because I see him developing into a Yaya Toure type personally and I'm sure Brendan will give him plenty of game time this year.

Emre reminds me a bit of Hamman with maybe more possibility or range to his game, when he develops; he's very young. In fact- he's like a mix of Hamman and Gerrard.
Early days I know... Hamman was one of my favorite players of this prem era. High hopes for Can, I expect to see quite a few motm performances from him this year.

Bagged 3 assists and a goal against Romania for the German 21 side.

EM11: http://youtu.be/W89aJCLARcQ

Looked the sh*t in this video.

Strong, quick and skilful.

He did too, looked very impressive. He looked like he was playing as the right hand centre back there, but I'd offer only two riders to what looked an excellent performance.

1. He literally looked like a man against boys in the vid. He's a big bugger anyway, and you almost felt sorry for the Irish kids.

2. Right at the end, at 3:41, he should have pinged it to the marauding left full back rather than turning inside .

Several Gerrardesque passes in that video. Looks like he's been paying attention in training

Personally what excites me most about him is that powerful drive he seems capable off when going on a run. Reminds me of Yaya Toure.

With all the energy,creativity and vision in our midfield to have that type of powerful explosive dribbler in their just gives us so much going forward.

Holy crapola! Looked immense in that video.

Him and Hendo have us set for the next decade.

CE11

Looked even better in this game. 3 assists and just bossed the midfield.

CE11

Looked even better in this game. 3 assists and just bossed the midfield.

He's going to be an absolute beast.

£10m will look like a snip in time, very similar to how a lot of our signings feel this Summer.

Potential to improve on all of them, I'm hoping the environment to progress is perfect for them because we have such a talent pool and they really could all grow together to be a real powerhouse group of players.

Just to quanitify:

Can: 20
Markovic: 20
Sterling: 19
Coutinho: 22
Moreno: 22
Henderson: 24
Balotelli: 24 (and only just)
Sakho: 24
Lovren: 25 (only just)

That group of such tremendous talent makes me laugh when our rivals try and compare themselves. We are nowhere near our peak at the moment, the future is going to be absolutely fantastic.

Played amazing for Germany u21 but took a bad tumble cause the pitch gave way under him when he tried a ronaldo chop and went over on his ankle! He came back on but wasn't looking very mobile! Hope to god he isn't injured because a midfield 3 of Gerrard Can and Henderson excites me a lot!