Liverpool transfer news: Malcom vs Fekir

Get Football News France have written an article in which they claim mainstream publication Sud-Ouest ran a story claiming Malcom’s agent has flown to the UK to meet with representative from Chelsea and the Reds.

This comes hot on the heels of continued stories linking Fekir with an Anfield transfer. The Express, Goal and ESPN have all reported that there is interest from Liverpool in doing a deal, and that an agreement is close.

Both players occupy similar positions on the pitch, so it’s hard to see Jurgen Klopp bringing both of them to Merseyside. So who enjoyed a more productive 2017/2018?

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Well, according to WhoScored.com, Fekir played better throughout the campaign than his Brazilian opponant – although both scored high match ratings. The Lyon man ended his Ligue 1 season with an average of 7.86, while the Brazilian came in on 7.46.

Fekir also had more of an impact at the sharp end of the pitch, scoring 18 goals and creating a further eight while Malcom managed to hit the back of the net 12 times and assist seven.

But if you delve deeper into the statistics (via Squawka) you’ll find that Malcom actually had a better season than Fekir in a number of areas.

The Brazilian created more chances per game than the Frenchman (2.45 vs 2), had considerably more key passes (2.26 vs 1.77) and just shaded Fekir on the amount of successful passes executed during the course of a game (30.84 vs 30.35).

But it appears as if Fekir is a more competent dribbler than Malcom and is better at taking on his man as the former pulls off more successful take-ons than the 21-year-old (3.08 vs 2.71) and is fouled more often (3.81 vs 2.74).

Both are clearly talented men who can change games by themselves. It’ll be interesting to see how the Bordeaux man develops as he is three years younger than Fekir. An investment in youth could well pay dividends for Liverpool if they chose to go down that route.