Liverpool open talks to sign £87m midfielder who's like prime Fabinho

The halcyon days of great midfielders in the Liverpool engine room are long gone.

Once upon a time, it was Terry McDermott and Graeme Souness. In more recent times it was Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso.

Now, Arne Slot is left with Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch, two of the club’s biggest underperformers in 2025/26. It’s not quite Joe Allen and Charlie Adam, sure, but to say they have regressed from last season would be an understatement.

While Gravenberch has never been a number 6, he was heralded as “Liverpool’s best and most important player” last September by Danny Murphy.

Yet, as it has been with most of Slot’s squad, times are tough for the Dutchman right now. He has not scored in 2026 and did not even start the game against Fulham a few weeks ago.

It’s abundantly clear Liverpool need a few new bodies in that area of the pitch.

Liverpool in talks to sign big-money midfielder

Liverpool’s efforts in the transfer market this summer will predominantly focus on rebuilding their attack.

Hang on a minute, didn’t they do last summer? Indeed, but money was not well spent and circumstances have changed. Mohamed Salah is set to leave Anfield on a free transfer and Hugo Ekitike has been ruled out for the next nine months.

Liverpool's Mohamed Salah looks dejected after the match

It explains links to RB Leipzig’s Yan Diomande with Football FanCast exclusively revealing back in February that an agreement on personal terms is close.

Bayern Munich’s Michael Olise is also really appreciated by the Anfield hierarchy but prising him away from Germany will be a near impossible task.

Liverpool’s shortlist to replace Salah
Player	Potential fee	Club
Michael Olise	£100m +	Bayern Munich
Yan Diomande	£87m	RB Leipzig
Bradley Barcola	£87m	PSG
Kenan Yildiz	£86m	Juventus
Anthony Gordon	£70m	Newcastle
Francisco Conceicao	£52m	Juventus

To be honest, the Reds could do with strengthening right across the pitch and the midfield areas will also be of importance. According to TEAMtalk, they mave found a solution to their woes.

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Liverpool have splashed the cash in recent years, but who are their priciest additions?

They claim that both Liverpool and Manchester United are seriously interested in signing French midfielder Aurlien Tchouameni this summer.

Currently at Real Madrid, any hopes of securing a deal are slim. Tchouameni has no desire to leave the Bernabeu behind but that could well change if they sign a new midfielder. Previous reports have suggested that they are keen on Rodri at Manchester City.

Still, both United and Liverpool have long-term interest in the player. The latter tried to sign him before his £87m move to Madrid when he was still at Monaco.

Now, however, they are ready to revive their interest in the player with the report stating that talks have been held with the midfielder’s camp. Club-to-club discussions are yet to start and may not even begin if they receive no encouragement from the player.

Why Tchouameni could finally replace Fabinho at Liverpool

While Fabinho’s final season at Anfield resembles that of a modern-day Mac Allister, his overall time in Merseyside was full of success.

Alongside the likes of Salah, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Virgil van Dijk, the Brazilian was one of Jurgen Klopp’s favourite players with the German once saying: “Fab was for so long the insurance we had in midfield. He always gave us the freedom to play all the fancy stuff. He was involved in that from time to time as well but loved to be the hoover for the team, loved to do all the dirty work for the team.”

After his departure in July 2023, they have tried and ultimately failed to replace him. Moises Caicedo was targeted, only for him to end up at Chelsea. Martin Zubimendi was also chased but he joined Arsenal instead.

Gravenberch stood up and became something of a modern-day Fabinho last term but with his performances waning, Tchouameni would tick so many boxes.

In the words of analyst Raj Chohan, he is “one of the best defensive midfielders on the planet” and judging by the numbers, it’s hard to dispute that.

Compared to midfielders in Europe’s top five leagues this season, he ranks among the best 4% for expected threat prevented, according to Scout Lab.

Expected threat prevented measures threat eliminated courtesy of defensive actions such as tackles, interceptions, clearances and ball recoveries.

He has achieved that by ranking inside the top 5% for tackles and interceptions, registering as many as 4.07 per 90 minutes. He’s among the best 6% of positionally similar players on the continent for aerial duels won per 90 with 2.48.

In that regard, he’s a sizable upgrade on the aforementioned Gravenberch who makes 3.61 tackles and interceptions per 90 while winning just 0.85 aerial duels.

To further contextualise those numbers, during Fabinho’s final season at Monaco, he was even better for tackles and interceptions than Tchouameni, registering 4.7 per game. Then, in Liverpool’s Premier League-winning campaign of 2019/20, he made 3.4 per match.

For an awful long time, Liverpool have been craving a defensive midfielder in the ilk of their great Brazilian title-winner. In the shape of Tchouameni, they’d finally find that.