Liverpool and Man City 'pushing hardest' to win race for Premier League ace; Reds reportedly preparing €40million bid

Liverpool are interested in signing Youri Tielemans from Leicester City with the midfielder a player said to fit the Reds like a glove.

Jurgen Klopp will be thankful that the January fixture list is over and has been navigated without issue as the German was without four of his most important players and had to rotate his side constantly.

Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Naby Keita were unavailable due to their attendance at AFCON and while the latter has been eliminated, Egypt and Senegal are in the Round of 16 and have a strong chance of facing each other in the final.

Thiago Alcantara has also been missing for Liverpool since he tested positive for Covid-19 and so the Reds have battled in midfield without him and Keita in the middle of the park but the Spaniard is set to return to training after the international break.

Liverpool and Man City 'pushing hardest' to win race Tielemans' signature

While things are looking up for the Anfield outfit, the last month or so has highlighted the need to sign a new midfielder after failing to replace Georginio Wijnaldum in the summer and Youri Tielemans has emerged as an option with the Belgian linked with Reds again.

On the 16th of January, El Nacional reported that Liverpool are preparing a €40million bid for Tielamans but the report stated that Real Madrid are also interested and Leicester would prefer to sell to a club outside the Premier League for obvious reasons.

Now, a report from Voetball Nieuws claims that Liverpool and Manchester City are the teams 'pushing the hardest' to sign Tielemans but the Merseysiders are earmarked as an outfit that suits the Belgian international particularly well.

Tielemans would suit Liverpool perfectly and should be affordable

The former AS Monaco star was heavily linked with a move to Anfield in the summer but it never came to be but he's one of the players in the Premier League that seems to have all the tools to walk into Jurgen Klopp's starting XI.

He's the complete midfield package and doesn't have any significant weaknesses although his lack of Champions League experience is one issue but that's less of a problem when playing with a squad of players filled with players that have won the tournament.

It's difficult to decide on where I think he would excel the most at Liverpool.

On one hand, he has the pace and power to be a pressing machine in the most advanced no.8 position for the Reds.

From there, he could be the trigger for a lot of Liverpool's counter-pressing in the midfield but I think his ability on the ball stands above his ability to win it back from opposition players.

At Leicester City, he's got Wilfred Ndidi, who specialises at winning the ball back, and he'd have Fabinho who can do pretty much the same job but to an even higher level and in a more intense pressing unit.

But Tielemans would shine at Liverpool with the likes of Sadio Mane, Diogo Jota, Mohamed Salah and potentially Luis Diaz making runnings ahead of him.