Sven Botman, prospective Liverpool defender from Ajax Academy

DBasia.news – The center-back crisis is the main reason for Liverpool’s decline in performance throughout the 2020-2021 season. The Reds are even threatened to miss the Champions League because they are still outside the top four with two games remaining.

Liverpool lost Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez for more than half a season. The three of them took turns experiencing severe injuries and having to be absent for a long time.

This condition forced the Club to temporarily change the position of Fabinho and Jordan Henderson. The two midfielders had a duet in defense.

Klopp tries to clean up by bringing in two emergency center-backs in the winter transfer market. The two players in question are Ozan Kabak and Ben Davies.

However, the presence of the two players did not have much effect. Kabak is still having trouble adapting to the English style of football, while Davies has yet to get the chance to appear.

No wonder Klopp intends to find a new center-back this summer. This step is in anticipation of the delay in the recovery period for the injury to the three main center-backs.

The name Sven Botman then emerged as Liverpool’s main target. Merseyside Red has even been monitoring him since last January.

Who is Botman?

The name Botman certainly still sounds foreign to soccer lovers’ ears. This is natural because the 21-year-old player currently only plays in Ligue 1 with Lille.

But that doesn’t mean Botman isn’t a special player. He is a graduate of the Ajax Amsterdam academy.

Although currently working in France, Botman is a Dutch national player. He has entered the Ajax academy since 2009 or when he was nine years old.

Botman is a classmate of Sergino Dest, Ryan Gravenberch and Mitchel Bakker. However, he failed to break into the Ajax first team and was loaned out to Heerenveen in the summer of 2019.

Together, Heerenveen, Botman’s appearance is actually quite convincing. He appeared 30 times throughout the 2019-2020 season and contributed two goals and four assists.

However, the incision did not impress Ajax officials. The Dutch giants actually sold Botman to Lille for a fee of eight million euros ahead of the 2020-2021 season.

The decision looks set to make Ajax regret it. Botman’s performance is growing with Lille. He even became one of the key players in his team to break the dominance of Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in Ligue 1.

Lille only needed to win in the last match to make this happen. Currently Christophe Galtier’s team is two points ahead of PSG.

One proof of the importance of Botman’s role can be seen from Lille’s status as the team that has conceded the least number of goals in Ligue 1. They have conceded just 22 goals in 37 matches.

Of the number of matches Lille have played, Botman has only missed one time. A huge trust placed on young players like him.

Botman is also one of the players who has the opportunity to represent the Netherlands at the 2020 European Cup. The Badhoevedorp-born player has already been called up to the senior national team even though he hasn’t been given the opportunity to make his debut.

Style of play

Botman has many attributes to be a world-class center-back. The posture that reaches 193 cm is one of them.

Apart from that, Botman also has the character of a modern center-back. He has above average ball possession and accurate quality of passes.

Naturally, Liverpool are interested in Botman. He shares many similarities with Van Dijk.