Rayan Aït-Nouri? Anthony Gordon? Gordon Blimey!

Fast and dynamic 23-year-olds for the left side, anyone?

Long-time readers will know that super-fast attacking left-back Rayan Aït-Nouri is a player I’ve liked for years now, and who has been linked with the Reds this week.

Interestingly, as I was about to hit publish, Liverpool are reported to have agreed a £100m deal for Anthony Gordon, a super-fast left-sided attacker who is now scoring and creating, and who started out as a Liverpool fan. Albeit the deal is also reported to have fallen through. (I have no idea on the validity of the claims either way.)

Newcastle may still look to sell him, if they want to reinvest and skate FFP/PSR limits. So this is mostly about Aït-Nouri, but with a bit of Gordon thrown in.

I’m not sure how close to the PSR limit Wolves are in terms of having to sell before tomorrow’s financial deadline, but researching it, they are confident of staying within the bounds, but only just.

It still feels like they need to sell, to be certain.

Max Kilman is a target for West Ham (and presumably Chelsea), and long-time favourite of mine, Aït-Nouri, has been linked with a move to Liverpool (and presumably Chelsea).

I’m also hearing that Chelsea are interested in signing Borussia Dortmund’s 2023/24 breakout loan star, Ian Maatsen, only to discover they had him, and that they’ve just sold him to Aston Villa. They’re currently preparing a bid of £50m.

Chelsea also like the look of Omari Hutchinson, having just signed Omari Kellyman from Villa for £19m, but Hutchinson is another Chelsea have just actually sold. (It’s been a life’s ambition for Kellyman to be playing in the PL2 with Chelsea’s U21s and then sent on loan to Blues’ feeder club Vitesse Arnhem – who will no longer exist at that point due to financial irregularities uncovered when the club was in partnership under Roman Abramovich.)

But back to Liverpool.

Sometimes you just see a player and think “yes”. I don’t tout many specific signings on TTT (as I don’t watch all the football that takes place all over the world, but do watch a lot of the Premier League), but about three years ago, going back to the days of the old mothballed TTT on WordPress, I saw Rayan Aït-Nouri bombing forward repeatedly in games and said I thought he’d suit what was then Liverpool’s system.

About 18 months ago, as the Reds slumped with an ageing side (before the wonderful revamping) I wrote this on here, the new site:

“Then, a super-fast, attacking left-back option, if more is needed. I personally like the look of Rayan Aït-Nouri, as I've said before, who is out of favour at Wolves as they use a more solid player instead. I don't know anything about his attitude, and if it's suitable, but he has caught my eye as a potential 'flyer' to change games if required.”

(Sentence before that: “Moisés Caicedo was sought last summer [2022 for £30m] but the deal got too complicated due to his many agents at the time, changing the terms. He might be back on the list, but a lot of clubs are in for him and Alexis Mac Allister. A lot of these guys fit the bill as excellent, technical and energetic players, but it will be a case of which ones are the most gettable, and gettable before preseason starts, to integrate them properly.”)

Sometimes it’s a data suite that piques my interest, albeit the data clubs use will be much deeper than even FBref.com, and you never know if a player is a dickhead or not, or has hidden injury issues.

I rarely tout signing specific players because I don’t know their personality, their training work ethic, their general attitude, their ability to mix with others, and I haven’t seen their medical records, nor any data that includes their every touch and even their every movement. (But if Liverpool are genuinely interested, I assume they’ve done all this.)

I see players I like, but it’s not often I keep repeatedly touting them for Liverpool.

I think after all these years watching and writing about the game, and having been a decent enough player in my youth, I can spot a player – but you can catch someone on a good day. I’m not a professional scout. That said, pretty much every U18 player I’ve picked out at Liverpool over the past 20 years has gone on to play for the first team or played for years at a high Championship standard, unless seriously injured. However, you can never say who will go off the rails, or just suffer bad luck.

You can often spot ‘talent’ quickly; it’s the other stuff (attitude, fitness, consistency) that’s harder to gauge, along with luck, which all players need.

I really liked that Aït-Nouri could beat a man; something Andy Robertson simply cannot do – although Robertson could give-and-go, and obviously run into space to receive the ball as he did so well in the Jürgen Klopp 1.0 Liverpool. But Robertson turns 31 next season.

As I noted a few weeks ago, Robertson still makes a lot of progressive actions per 90, but in the final third against a packed defence it’s either a cross or a pass backwards. He’s terrible from a standing start, with an awkward body position.

It’s hard to judge attacking stats for a full-back when in a mid-table side, but 98th percentile for Aït-Nouri for successful take-ons across the top five European leagues (for full-backs), at 2.40 completed per 90, is exceptional.

Which means Aït-Nouri successfully takes on a player 3x as much per 90 as Mo Salah! He successfully takes on an opponent more than TEN TIMES more than Robertson per 90 (0.23).

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